Covid origins report leader says team faced difficulties accessing data
Guardian, 31 Mar 2021
The leader of a World Health Organisation mission to China to find the origins of the novel coronavirus has said the team felt political pressure, including from outside China, and difficulties in accessing raw data.
'Of course, there was a lot of interest from all sides, of course there was political pressure from all sides, also outside China. But I think we were able to create a space for the science,' said Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO official who led the four-week mission of international experts to China in January and February.
The US and the UK have sharply criticised the WHO report into the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, in a statement signed by 12 other countries, implicitly accusing China of 'withholding access to complete, original data and samples'.
'Of course, there was a lot of interest from all sides, of course there was political pressure from all sides, also outside China. But I think we were able to create a space for the science,' said Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO official who led the four-week mission of international experts to China in January and February.
The US and the UK have sharply criticised the WHO report into the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, in a statement signed by 12 other countries, implicitly accusing China of 'withholding access to complete, original data and samples'.
