A team of WHO experts arrived at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research to investigate the source of the virus under tight surveillance by the Chinese Communist Party.
Citing World health Organization (WHO) investigators, the Wall Street Journal reported on Dec. 12 that Chinese authorities have refused to provide original information on the earliest cases of the virus in China, which would have helped them determine when and how the outbreak first began in China. Investigators say the two sides exchanged heated words over the lack of details.
The WHO investigation team completed about a month of source investigations in China this week.
The Central News Agency cited reports that Chinese Communist Party authorities have refused to hand over information on 174 patients with the Chinese Communist virus (COVID-19, Wuhan pneumonia), all of whom were found in Wuhan, Hubei province, when the outbreak first began in December 2019.
WHO investigators said Communist Party officials and scientists provided their own extensive summaries and analyses of case information, and also made retrospective studies of medical records from the months prior to the Wuhan outbreak, and provided convergent information and analyses claiming to have found no evidence of the virus.
However, the investigators said the mission was not allowed to review the original underlying information from these retrospective studies, which they would have had to see in order to conduct their own analysis of how early the virus began to spread in China and how widespread it was.
WHO member states generally provide such anonymous but disaggregated information so that investigators can review all other relevant details of each case, investigators said.
They let us look at a few cases, but not all, unlike all other standard epidemiological surveys,” said Dominic Dwyer, an Australian microbiologist on the mission. That way, you know, it’s more limited to interpret that information from our point of view, although the other side may feel that’s fine.”
Neither the Chinese Communist Party’s National Health Commission nor the Foreign Ministry commented.
The reluctance of the Chinese Communist Party to provide information has added to the concerns of many foreign governments and scientists about China’s lack of transparency in the investigation of the source of the outbreak, the report mentioned. The U.S. State Department said this week that it would like to see basic information about the WHO investigation.
The WHO mission explored whether the virus spread in China well before early December 2019; the point at which the first case with COVID-19 symptoms was detected, according to Chinese Communist authorities. The virus has infected more than 100 million people worldwide and sickened and killed more than 2.3 million so far.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the 10th of this month that investigators said about 90 hospital patients in central China showed COVID-19-like symptoms in the two months before the Wuhan outbreak.
More than a year later, Communist authorities tested these people for antibodies, which had probably fallen to undetectable levels long after that Time, and all tested negative. The failure to test early made it impossible for researchers to determine whether these patients had been infected with COVID-19 or similar respiratory diseases.
The WHO does not have the power to compel member governments to hand over information, which means the WHO must rely on cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party in investigating the source of the disease.
Du Ye revealed that the Chinese authorities refused to hand over original information on the 174 patients at the beginning of the outbreak or provide possible cases in the months leading up to December 2019, which led to heated discussions between the WHO mission and Chinese experts during the investigation.
Thea Fischer, a Danish epidemiologist on the mission, had said on the 9th of this month, “Sometimes emotions really got the better of me. I am a scientific researcher, I believe in data, I believe in proofs that are constituted on the basis of data, I don’t believe whatever anyone says.”
Fisher mentioned that she did not see inconsistencies in the information that Wuhan was allowed to review, but that a more in-depth analysis would not be possible without reviewing the original data. She said most other countries provide this type of information.
Du Ye said the Chinese Communist Party did not agree to provide the original information before the WHO mission left Wuhan this week.
Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist and member of the WHO mission, said the Chinese scholars involved in the investigation first completed a massive effort involving hundreds of researchers at multiple research centers; because of the WHO mission’s time constraints, it may try to obtain the information later.
According to Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, “What you can do in this situation is assume that everyone is acting in good conscience; after all, you don’t want to cut off access to critical information in the future.” Lipkin was not a member of the mission.
WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today that the summary report of the mission is expected to be released next week, and the full report will be completed in a few weeks.
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