WUHAN, China (AP) – A relative of a coronavirus victim in China demands to meet with a visiting team of World Health Organization experts, who say he should talk to affected families alleging that the Chinese government has turned them off.
China approved the visit of investigators under the auspices of the UN agency only after months of negotiations. He has not indicated whether they will be allowed to gather evidence or talk to families, saying only that the team can exchange views with Chinese scientists.
“I hope WHO experts do not become a tool to spread lies,” said Zhang Hai, whose father died of COVID-19 on February 1, 2020, after traveling to the Chinese city. of Wuhan and become infected. “We have been searching for the truth without rest. It was a criminal act and I do not want the WHO to come to China to cover up these crimes. ”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The WHO team, which arrived in Wuhan on January 14 to investigate the origins of the virus, is expected to begin fieldwork later this week after a 14-day quarantine.
Zhang, a Wuhan native now living in the southern city of Shenzhen, has been organizing relatives of coronavirus victims in China to hold officials accountable.
Many are angry that the state is minimizing the virus at the beginning of the outbreak, and have tried to file lawsuits against the Wuhan government.
Relatives have faced immense pressure from authorities not to comment. According to interviews with Zhang and other relatives, officials have dismissed the demands, repeatedly questioned Zhang and others, and threatened to fire relatives of those speaking to foreign media.
Zhang said relatives’ chat groups were closed shortly after the WHO team arrived in Wuhan, and accused the city government of trying to silence them.
“Don’t pretend we don’t exist, that we don’t seek accountability,” Zhang said. “You have destroyed all our platforms, but we still want to let everyone know through the media that we have not given up.”
The WHO says its visit to China is a scientific mission to investigate the origins of the virus, not an effort to blame, and that “in-depth interviews and reviews” of the first cases are needed. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China initially rejected international investigation requests after the Trump administration accused Beijing of the virus, but bowed to global pressure in May over an investigation into the origins.
On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. head of infectious diseases, told the World Economic Forum that the origins of the virus that has rounded the world, “a big black box, which is horrible,” are still unknown.
The mission was repeatedly delayed by negotiations and setbacks, one of which sparked an unusual public complaint by the WHO chief.
The arrival of the WHO mission has rekindled controversy over whether China allowed the virus to spread globally by reacting too slowly in the early days.
From the beginning, WHO officials have tried to get more cooperation from China, with limited success.
Audio recordings of WHO internal meetings obtained by The Associated Press and first aired on Tuesday show that even while the WHO praised China in public, officials complained in private that they did not get enough information.
The United Nations agency has no enforcement powers, so it must rely on the goodwill of member countries.
Keiji Fukuda, a public health expert at Hong Kong University, described the visit as an “imaging mission”, with China eager to be transparent and WHO eager to show that it is taking action.
“Both China and the WHO are hoping to get some brownie points,” said Fukuda, a former WHO official. “But it all comes down to what the team will have access to. Will they really be able to ask the questions they want to ask? “
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Kang reported from Beijing.