Beijing says WHO team will begin the investigation into Covid on January 14
Go ahead to inquiry after numerous delays, the most recent last week. The team of experts will cooperate with Chinese doctors. It is not clear whether the mission will be able to visit Wuhan and meet the doctors who first raised the alarm, only to be censored by the regime. One of them, Ai Fen, reappears after months of being missing with health problems.
Beijing (AsiaNews) - Experts from WHO (World Health Organization) will arrive in China on January 14 to launch the international investigation into the origins of Covid-19, the Chinese Health Commission announced today.
Beijing has hindered the launch of the mission for months; the last delay came last week, when it emerged that the Chinese government had not yet prepared entry visas. WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had expressed disappointment at the new delays; the Chinese authorities have minimized speaking of a simple "misunderstanding".
The decision for an international inquiry into the origins of the pandemic - closely linked with Wuhan, its epicenter - was taken at the WHO assembly (held virtually) last May, and China did not oppose it. However, since then, Beijing has raised several objections, especially regarding the formation of the team of experts.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020, the WHO has often been accused of covering up for China, accused by many of having lied about the spread of the coronavirus. US President Donald Trump termed Tedros a "puppet" in the hands of Beijing.
He was accused of collusion with the Chinese authorities in lying and delaying the declaration on human-to-human transmissibility of the virus, on the declaration of world emergency, accepting that his experts did not go to Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic.
The Chinese health authorities have specified that the WHO team will work in collaboration with local doctors. However, they did not explain whether the mission will go to Wuhan or be allowed to interview the doctors who first raised the alarm about the "strange disease".
Ai Fen, head of the emergency department of the Wuhan central hospital, had denounced the situation in mid-December 2019, and was immediately submitted to censorship by the authorities. She shared sensitive information with eight hospital colleagues. Among them was Li Wenliang, the doctor arrested by the police for having issued the alert. Li died of the infection on February 7, followed by three other doctors.
After missing for months, Ai lei revealed that she could no longer work. She has not received the necessary treatment to cure an eye from which she can no longer see. There is no news of the other colleagues who also reported the spread of the virus.
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19/01/2021 14:44
28/08/2020 16:30
