White House demands China release data from the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak, citing 'deep concerns' about WHO COVID report backing Beijing's claim that it did NOT leak from a Wuhan lab
The White House is demanding China turn over data from the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak, citing 'deep concerns' about the way the findings of the World Health Organization's COVID-19 report were communicated.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan released a statement on Saturday saying 'it is imperative' that the report be independent and free from 'alteration by the Chinese government'.
The statement echoed concerns that had been raised by the administration of former President Donald Trump, who also moved to quit the WHO over the issue.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said all hypotheses are still open about the origins of COVID-19, after Washington said it wanted to review data from a four-week WHO-led mission investigating the origins of the outbreak in China.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan (left) said the US had 'deep concerns' about how the early findings of the COVID-19 outbreak investigation were communicated as he demanded China, lead by President Xi Jinping (right), release the data
The Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab in Wuhan (pictured) which Beijing has strongly denied
Earlier this week the organization that it was not looking further into the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab, which it considered highly unlikely.
The Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing has strongly denied.
Sullivan noted that President Joe Biden had quickly reversed the decision to disengage from the WHO, but said it was imperative to protect the organization's credibility.
'Re-engaging the WHO also means holding it to the highest standards,' Sullivan said.
'We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them.'
Biden, who is spending his first weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat in the mountains of western Maryland, will meet with his national security advisers on Saturday, a White House official said.
Peter Embarek, lead researcher for WHO in Wuhan, put forward four theories about how the virus infected humans: Direct transfer from source animal into people, transfer via an intermediary animal, transfer via food, and transfer via a lab leak (pictured, a chart showing the four routes)
Dr Embarek said his team has ruled out the possibility that the virus leaked from a lab such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology (pictured), saying such a leak is 'extremely unlikely' and should not be investigated further
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said all hypotheses are still open about the origins of COVID-19
China refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team's investigators, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.
The team had requested raw patient data on 174 cases that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan in December 2019, as well as other cases, but were only provided with a summary, Dominic Dwyer, an Australian infectious diseases expert who is a member of the WHO team, told Reuters.
'It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government,' Sullivan said.
'To better understand this pandemic and prepare for the next one, China must make available its data from the earliest days of the outbreak,' he said.
No comment was immediately available from the Chinese embassy in Washington or the WHO.
Going forward, all countries, including China, should participate in a transparent and robust process for preventing and responding to health emergencies, Sullivan said.
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