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China refused to provide WHO team with raw data on early Covid cases, team member says
SHANGHAI, Feb 13 — China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to a World Health Organization-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, one of the team’s investigators said, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.
The team had requested raw patient data on the 174 cases of Covid-19 that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, as well as other cases, but were only provided with a summary, said Dominic Dwyer, an Australian infectious diseases expert who is a member of the team.
Such raw data is known as “line listings”, he said, and would typically be anonymised but contain details such as what questions were asked of individual patients, their responses and how their responses were analysed.
“That’s standard practice for an outbreak investigation,” he told Reuters today via video call from Sydney, where he is currently undergoing quarantine.
He said that gaining access to the raw data was especially important since only half of the 174 cases had exposure to the Huanan market, the now-shuttered wholesale seafood centre in Wuhan where the virus was initially detected.
“That’s why we’ve persisted to ask for that,” he said. “Why that doesn’t happen, I couldn’t comment. Whether it’s political or time or it’s difficult ... But whether there are any other reasons why the data isn’t available, I don’t know. One would only speculate.”
While the Chinese authorities provided a lot of material, he said the issue of access to the raw patient data would be mentioned in the team’s final report. “The WHO people certainly felt that they had received much much more data than they had ever received in the previous year. So that in itself is an advance.”
A summary of the team’s findings could be released as early as next week, the WHO said yesterday.
The WHO-led probe had been plagued by delay, concern over access and bickering between Beijing and Washington, which accused China of hiding the extent of the initial outbreak and criticised the terms of the visit, under which Chinese experts conducted the first phase of research.
The team, which arrived in China in January and spent four weeks looking into the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak, was limited to visits organised by their Chinese hosts and prevented from contact with community members, due to health restrictions. The first two weeks were spent in hotel quarantine.
China’s refusal to hand over raw data on the early Covid-19 cases was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal yesterday.
The WHO did not reply to a request from Reuters for comment. The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment but Beijing has previously defended its transparency in handling the outbreak and its cooperation with the WHO mission.
Harmonious, with arguments
Dwyer said the work within the WHO team was harmonious but that there were “arguments” at times with their Chinese counterparts over the interpretation and significance of the data, which he described as “natural” in such probes.
“We might be having a talk about cold chain and they might be more firm about what the data shows than what we might have been, but that’s natural. Whether there’s political pressure to have different opinions, I don’t know. There may well be, but it’s hard to know.”
Cold chain refers to the transport and trade of frozen food.
Beijing has sought to cast doubt on the notion that the coronavirus originated in China, pointing to imported frozen food as a conduit.
On Tuesday, Peter Ben Embarek, who led the WHO delegation, told a news conference that transmission of the virus via frozen food is a possibility, but pointed to market vendors selling frozen animal products including farmed wild animals as a potential pathway that warrants further study.
Embarek also said that the team was not looking further into the theory that the virus escaped from a lab, which it considered highly unlikely. The previous US administration of President Donald Trump had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Wuhan lab, which Beijing strongly denies.
“It was an unanimous feeling,” Dwyer said. “It wasn’t a political sop whatsoever.”
- Reuters
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Discussions
Be the first to like this. Showing 24 of 24 comments
Nothing to hide ! Raw data is the result of hardwork by the Chinese experts.Go to countries where covid-19 was first started but failed to report to WHO.
2021-02-13 22:31
LOL, China is where it first started.
WHO is in the right place.
China spread the virus worldwide and crushed economies but does not want to cooperate with WHO. Typical selfishness or kiasu behaviour.
2021-02-13 22:43
Covid-9 virus was found much earlier in Spain,Italy,US.But did not report to the authoritis due to ignorance ! Dont be misled by western medias.Typical Trumpt supporter. LOL.
2021-02-13 22:50
LOL. Chinese supports China.
That's understandable. We know the bias.
2021-02-13 22:53
Really?
Why UN is quiet on that matter?
Answer is , it is fake news!
LOL
2021-02-13 22:57
If saints are with China, why not share the raw data?
I doubt it is saints, more like satans.
LOL
2021-02-13 23:00
The saying "Covid-9 virus was found much earlier in Spain,Italy,US" is not true.
Earliest COVID 19 cases in China can be backtracked to August 2019, could even be June 2019.
Spain, Italy etc is like December 19 cases.
2021-02-13 23:09
With more than 14 billions people ,China is now the safest place in the world for covid-19
2021-02-13 23:15
LOL, world population is a bit more than 7 Billion.
How is it that China has 14 Billion?
China does not disclose it's data, so doubt it is safe.
2021-02-13 23:39
CONCLUSIONS : NOW IS THE LOGICAL TIME TO INVESTIGATE USA LABS TO CONFIRM WHETHER IT IS THE COVID19 SOURCE LOH!
WHO backs away from outright rejection of Covid lab-leak theory
Author: Tan KW | Publish date: Sat, 13 Feb 2021, 2:34 PM
THE World Health Organisation hasn't ruled out any hypotheses about the roots of Covid-19, according to the group's chief, after a fact-finding mission to China rejected speculation that the coronavirus could have leaked from a lab.
All avenues of research remain open, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing on Friday.
The investigation "has added important information that takes us closer to understanding the origins of the virus," particularly in the early days of the pandemic.
The comments appeared to pull back on the investigating team's remarks earlier this week. The lab-leak theory was "extremely unlikely" and required no further study, according to Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO food-safety scientist. The coronavirus most likely jumped to humans through an animal host or frozen wildlife products, he said, and those possibilities should continue to be probed.
The WHO has faced criticism since the outbreak of the pandemic that it's been too deferential to China. Former US President Donald Trump advanced the theory that the virus might have escaped from a high-security virology lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus was first detected.
The mission followed months of negotiation with China.
Stung by criticism that it initially covered up the extent of the crisis, Chinese state media and officials have promoted the theory that the virus didn't start in China, but was brought in.
2021-02-14 08:27
Stop calling "covid 19" it is "wuhan virus" end of debate. Remembered "sars" this is an upgrade version originated from china.
2021-02-14 13:00
Knowing the origin of a virus is important for academic reasons. But knowing whether a country did all it could to stop a disease from spreading within the country and to the rest of the world as required by WHO guideline is even more important whenever there is an outbreak. A lot of evidence point to the fact that the neccessary steps were not taken to prevent the disease from becoming a world wide pandemic. So it is understandable why the country where the outbreak happened is so secretive and touchy on the subject..
2021-02-14 13:09
It is good to go to the WHO website to know what it says. Too many fake news out there created by people who want to hide the truth. What we know is lots of people were prosecuted for initially breaking the news about the virus. And a international investigation was unduly delayed, lots of obstacles were put in their path. Now we know the team were only allowed to see prepared data and not allowed to carry promary research or access to raw data. It is your guess what it all shows....
2021-02-14 13:57
Starship2, wow 12 posts in a stock forum and all the 12 posts are on a smear campaign ?
Go back to the cave where you come from, nipah virus may not be that far from your backyard. That is Malaysia originated virus...if you know that.
You and that guy with a vulgar name, that starts with a P....I guess religion has no bearing to you. Stop your racialistic comments and leave this forums to shares matters.
2021-02-14 15:17
@supersaiyan3
wow, it must be news to experts all over the world that China cases can be backtracked to june 2019.
Trump may have given you the green card if you can come up with evidences to support this.
You are despicable, changing facts to suits your agenda ?
You are a liar.
2021-02-14 15:24
All thieves are liar but all liar would always steal. Obviously the thieves m referring here is China.
2021-02-14 15:25
Seems like the truth hurts for some cunning wolf. Well wolves are wolf, who twist facts.
2021-02-14 15:56
Guys.. Just ignore @billionn.. He's a ostrich.. Can refer to TCS's thread..
2021-02-14 21:53
@Puntat....using the genitals to call your self certainly befits what is up there. Facts are there for all to see, only twisted minds follows to trumpet fakes and garbage
2021-02-15 08:36
@Puntat...people who ignored what the teachers taught in school, always use the shortcut to get where they are generally have no brain power and the knowledge to distinguish fakes and half truth from facts.
Every thing used to be served on a platter, given free, so generally, will only scratch the surface but knows next to nothing, especially something very scientific in nature.
in summary, you are just a water buffalo, noosed and led by the rope of western medias.
it will take time, but the facts and truth will be so glaring to you, you may not have that intelligence to discern them.
Memalukan bangsa dan agama is what you are doing here, especially with that nickname of yours.
2021-02-15 08:53
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