With unusually sharp words, the highest-ranking Covid-19 expert at the World Health Organization (WHO), Maria Van Kerkhove, has warned of China’s cooperation in researching the corona virus. Van Kerkhove criticized in a comment in the renowned US journal Sciencethat Chinese scientists withheld virus sample data from metropolitan Wuhan for three years.
“The lack of disclosure of data is simply inexcusable,” wrote the epidemiologist. The WHO only learned about certain genetic information from the central Chinese metropolis in mid-March this year after it was briefly accessible on an international database.
The data provide evidence that the market in Wuhan may have been the place where the virus first spread. According to Van Kerkhove, further blood tests from workers at the live animal markets in Wuhan and the breeding farms of the animals are necessary.
The WHO expert called for the immediate provision of relevant data on the origin of the virus. The more time elapses, the more difficult the research work, which is important for preventing future outbreaks, becomes. “Time is running out,” she warned.
“The world needs to move away from the blame game.”
At the beginning of March, statements by FBI Director Christopher Wray in the United States rekindled speculation about a laboratory glitch in China as the origin of the corona virus. Van Kerkhove emphasized that as long as there is not enough information, all hypotheses about the origin of the virus are maintained. China has not yet provided the results of its laboratory tests. In addition, the WHO still has no access to raw data on the first corona cases in China.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, China has worried about being blamed for the global outbreak. The Chinese government and state media have since pursued a massive disinformation campaign emphasizing the possibility that the virus also originated abroad. The rivalry with the US and the debate over the laboratory thesis have increasingly politicized the question of the origin of the virus. A joint commission of inquiry with WHO experts was only able to travel to Wuhan in 2021. Further research trips did not materialize.
“WHO continues to urge China and all countries to share all data on the origin of Sars-CoV-2 without delay,” Van Kerkhove wrote. “The world needs to move away from the blame game.” Instead, she should use all diplomatic and scientific approaches to work together, find solutions and thwart future pandemics.