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WHO withholds interim report on COVID origins amid accusations of collusion with Beijing

蘋果日報 2021/03/06 06:37


A World Health Organization-led mission to investigate the origins of the coronavirus outbreak in China has scrapped a plan to release an interim report due to concerns about the investigation’s credibility, according to media reports.
The WHO sent a team of experts to Wuhan in early 2021 to look for evidence of how the COVID-19 pandemic started in China, including whether the virus resulted from an accidental leak from a Chinese laboratory.
But the original plan for releasing an interim report has been canceled, according to Peter Ben Embarek, a food safety expert who headed the mission. He was quoted by the Wall Street Journal in a report published on Friday, saying a full report would be published in the coming weeks with “key findings.”
More than 26 scientists have called on the international health body to restart the investigation due to widespread concerns about limitations on the team’s access imposed by China. The investigation was meant to dig deep for evidence, but its work was marred by delays and an alleged lack of cooperation by Chinese authorities, according to various reports.
Earlier this week, an investigative report from the Daily Caller News Foundation and the non-profit group Judicial Watch claimed that during the early stage of the outbreak, WHO staff worked with Chinese officials to ensure that no sensitive information about the outbreak could be released without Beijing’s consent.
A deputy to Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was asked to agree to confidentiality terms before joining an early mission to China to collect data during the early stages of the outbreak in 2020. The terms were “tailored to China”, according to an email obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In another relevant email, dated Feb. 15, 2020, Gauden Galea, the chief of the WHO office in China, said any investigation in China would need to be approved and arranged by Beijing’s National Health Commission. Officials were told in a briefing that no “sensitive” information could be made public without the consent of Chinese authorities, he said.
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