Member of WHO team studying virus origin says ‘don’t rely’ on US intel
WUHAN: US intelligence on the supposed origin of the coronavirus pandemic was not reliable, a member of the special World Health Organisation (WHO) mission to China said yesterday, after Washington cast doubt on the transparency of the probe.
The mission ended on Tuesday without finding the source of the virus, but members had to walk a diplomatic tightrope during their stay, with the US urging a "robust" probe and China warning against politicising the issue.
Information dribbled out through their personal Twitter accounts during the mission, but more details and opinions emerged as they prepared to leave China.
New York-based zoologist Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO team, waded into the murky geopolitics that covers the pandemic origin story.
President Joe Biden "has to look tough on China", he said in a tweet, adding: "Please don't rely too much on US intel: increasingly disengaged under Trump & frankly wrong on many aspects."
Dr Daszak also tweeted that they worked "flat out under the most politically charged environment possible".
His comments were linked to an article referencing US State Department comments that cast doubt over the transparency of China's cooperation with the mission.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the White House "clearly support this investigation" but shared criticism that China concealed information.
Asked if China had fully cooperated with the WHO team, Mr Price told reporters: "I think the jury's still out."
There had also been concerns about the scientists' access to data a year on from the outbreak and amid accusations that Beijing downplayed the initial severity of the outbreak.
Several WHO team members insisted that they were granted full access to the sites and people they requested to visit.
But Danish epidemiologist and team member Thea Kolsen Fischer appeared to break ranks, revealing after the briefing that they were not given raw data and instead relied on analyses by Chinese scientists.
"If you come as an outsider and look at the individual, identifiable data, you would most likely - in most scenarios - get access to aggregated data," she said, referring to the common practice in most countries. - AFP
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