There is growing controversy over a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic after one of its members said China had refused to provide key data and the US national security adviser said he had "concerns deep "in relation to the findings.
An international delegation traveled to Wuhan City last month as part of efforts to understand how the coronavirus outbreak began. Dominic Dwyer, an Australian infectious disease expert who was part of the team, said they had requested raw patient data but had only been given a summary.
Dwyer told Reuters Saturday that distributing anonymous raw data is "standard practice" for an explosion investigation. He said the raw data were particularly important in trying to understand Covid-19.
Wuhan is where the disease was identified and the first city to be hit hard by a wave of infections, but China has sought to cast doubt on whether the pandemic originated in China, saying a source could be imported frozen food.
Days ago, the WHO-led mission in China stated that it was not considering further whether the virus had spread after an incident in a laboratory, but then, its director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said :
"Some questions have been raised as to whether some hypotheses have been refuted. "Talking to some team members, I want to confirm that all the hypotheses remain open and require further analysis and study."
Sources: Reuters, Guardian, WHO
