In response to U.S. criticism yesterday of the level of information the Chinese authorities opened to the World health Organization (WHO) Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak fact-finding team, British Foreign Secretary George Raab said today that London shares the same concerns as Washington.
According to the Central News Agency today, citing Reuters news agency, the United States criticized China for not providing adequate information on the source of the Epidemic to the WHO, and the United Kingdom also expressed concern.
The Reuters news agency said that Australian infectious disease expert Dominic Dwyer, a member of the WHO expert team sent to Wuhan, China, said yesterday that Beijing had refused to provide all the data requested by investigators. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan also issued a statement yesterday saying the U.S. was deeply concerned about the way the WHO’s findings were released and asked China to release information from the early stages of the outbreak to investigators.
Asked about Washington’s response during a BBC interview, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, “We do share the concern that they [WHO experts on mission] are not getting the full cooperation and answers they need.” Rabb said, “So we would urge that they be given access to all the information and all the data they need to be able to answer questions about the outbreak. I think most people would like to hear those questions answered.”
The report said another member of the WHO investigation team, epidemiologist John Watson, said in an interview with the BBC that while the Chinese authorities had not provided them with all the raw data, they had seen a lot of relevant information and had discussed the analysis of the initial cases of the outbreak. According to Watson, “It would be unusual for them (Beijing) to provide us with raw data. However, we have seen a great deal of detailed information in our discussions with our Chinese counterparts.”
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