WHO team set to arrive in Wuhan to investigate origins of pandemic
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) team of international experts will fly from Singapore to Wuhan, China on Thursday in order to try and investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reports. This mission has been relaunched following a setback last month when China denied entry to two investigators who were then forced to return home.
In a statement, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said his team looked forward to working with China to find out where the virus came from and how it had entered the population, Reuters said. Ghebreyesus had expressed “disappointment” when the last planned mission fell through.
The Chinese government stated that the prior setback had happened due to a “misunderstanding.” In a press statement about the new WHO mission Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: “According to the current plan, [the WHO team] will fly from Singapore to Wuhan on January 14.”
China’s foreign ministry gave no details about an itinerary for the WHO team, or whether the experts would be quarantined on arrival, Reuters reports.
A health expert connected to the WHO has told Reuters that expectations should be “very low” that the investigators will be able to reach a conclusion during their mission. China has been trying to shape the narrative by releasing statements about “studies” showing the virus originated in numerous locations, Reuters notes.
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