[ad_1]
WUHAN, China (AP) – A World Health Organization team walked out of quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday to begin fieldwork in a mission to investigate the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
The researchers, who were to spend 14 days in quarantine after arriving in China, left their quarantine hotel and boarded a bus in the middle of the afternoon.
The mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in its rapid response to the outbreak. A major question is where the Chinese side will allow researchers to go and who they can talk to.
Yellow barriers blocked the entrance to the hotel, keeping the media at bay. Before the researchers boarded, workers in full protective gear could be seen loading their luggage onto the bus, including two musical instruments, a dumbbell and four yoga mats.
Hotel staff waved goodbye as the researchers boarded the bus, possibly heading to another hotel. The bus driver was wearing a full white protective suit. The researchers wore face masks.
Earlier this month, former WHO official Keiji Fukuda, who is not on the Wuhan team, warned of any expectation of breakthroughs, saying it could take years before firm conclusions cannot be drawn on the origin of the virus.
“It’s now well over a year that it all started,” he said. “Much of the physical evidence will disappear. People’s memories are imprecise and the physical layout of many places will likely be different from what they used to be and how people move etc.
Among the places they might visit are the Huanan Seafood Market, which was linked to many of the early cases, as well as research institutes and hospitals that treated patients during the height of the decade. ‘epidemic.
The mission was only launched after considerable arguments between the two sides that led to a rare complaint from the WHO that China was taking too long to make final arrangements.
China, which strongly opposed an independent investigation it could not fully control, said the case was complicated and Chinese medical staff were concerned about new clusters of the virus in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere. ‘other cities.
While the WHO has been criticized early on, especially by the United States, for not being critical enough of China’s response, it has recently accused China and other countries of moving too slowly at the start of the decade. the epidemic, attracting a rare admission from the Chinese side that it could have been done better.
Overall, however, China strongly defended its response, perhaps out of concern over reputational or even financial costs if deemed insufficient.
“WHO and world experts have fully affirmed the success of the prevention of epidemics in China and the work of tracing the past origins,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday. “The two sides have a basic consensus on cooperation in the field of origins research, and related work is progressing smoothly.”
Chinese officials and state media have tried to cast doubt on the fact that the virus even started in China. Most experts believe it originated in bats, possibly in southwestern China or neighboring parts of Southeast Asia, before being passed to another animal and then to humans. .
The search for the origins will attempt to determine where and exactly how it happened.
___
Associated Press photographer Ng Han Guan contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link