The World Health Organization (WHO) team of experts tasked with investigating the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus will arrive in China next Thursday, January 14, after both sides overcame the country access problems of that mission for which they clashed last week.
Through a brief statement posted on its website, the National Health Commission of China indicates that WHO technicians will arrive in the Asian country on the 14th, and that they will “cooperate” with local scientists in these inquiries.
The Commission does not specify the places to which members of this “priority” WHO mission will be made up of scientists from various international organizations from the United States, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia. , Vietnam, Germany and Qatar.
According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post, “The mission is expected to last six weeks, including quarantine” (Which will be submitted to the members of the research team).
The aim is to find the possible animal origin of SARS-CoV-2 and its channels of transmission to humans.
FROM OTHER COUNTRIES?
Although the initial theory is that it spread through a fresh produce and animal market in Wuhan, the Chinese official press has in recent months pushed for an alternative narrative that says this outbreak could be due to frozen foods from other countries.
From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spokesman Zhao Lijian said today during the daily press conference that “it is likely that tracking the origin of the coronavirus will involve several countries with greater knowledge of viruses. The WHO it will need to conduct similar research in other countries and regions. “
In this regard, an expert on respiratory diseases quoted by the combative state nationalist newspaper Global Times said that the WHO team “You will probably visit other countries where the coronavirus emerged before China,” an idea the Chinese official press is trying to spread.
The source says that China was “the first country to detect it” and that is why Beijing “is in charge of helping the WHO conduct the investigations.”
CONTROVERSY FOR ARRIVAL
The arrival of the WHO team in China caused controversy last week after WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “very disappointed” by the obstacles Beijing was putting in the mission. , although Chinese authorities denied putting obstacles in their way.
Several members of the team had begun their trips to China in the early days of the year, but Tedros lamented that Beijing had not “completed the necessary permits.” for its access to Asian country, which recorded the first global outbreak of covid in the central-eastern city of Wuhan during the last days of December 2019.
Scientists who were unable to gain access to China were forced to return to their home countries until the situation was resolved.
However, the Chinese chancellery described the situation as a “misunderstanding”, assuring last week that “there has been no problem in cooperation” with the WHO and that the organization knew “perfectly” that it was not just a “visa issue,” to which he added that the two sides were still preparing the visit and negotiating their dates.
TOO LATE?
This contingency added new doubts to the existing ones about the transparency of the Chinese authorities regarding the virus, as well as on the delay of the mission, as it has been more than a year since its emergency in Wuhan.
Last Saturday, the deputy director of the National Health Commission, Zeng Yixin, showed his support for the mission, although he pointed out that they were left to coordinate the times.
Still WHO experts already visited China for this purpose in February and July last year – without going into too much detail. the organization of this mission has been delayed for months and has been surrounded by secrecy, both by this body and by the Chinese authorities.