China has blocked the arrival of a team from the World Health Organisation investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that their visas had not yet been approved even as some members of the group were on their way. The Guardian reports that the WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed his dismay and said he had called on China to allow the team in. “I’m very disappointed with this news, given that two members have already begun their journeys, and others were not able to travel at the last minute,” he said.
“But I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials. And I have once again made made it clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team.”
The Guardian reports that the WHO has been attempting to send in the team of global experts from a number of countries for some months. It has been talking with Chinese officials since July. Scientists have long said it is essential to find out how the virus jumped species into humans.
The expedition to China was heading to Wuhan to investigate the earliest cases. It was not intending to probe claims that the virus originated in a Chinese lab, which have been dismissed by most scientists.
Dr Mike Ryan at WHO said the team had been working very closely with Chinese colleagues on planning the trip.
Ilona Kickbusch, the founding director and chair of the Global Health Centre in Geneva, is quoted in The Guardian report as saying that geopolitics had got in the way of countries joining together to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and the hostilities that had been generated could now get in the way of finding out how it began.
[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/05/china-blocks-entry-to-who-team-studying-covids-origins"]Full report in The Guardian[/link]