Hopes ride on WHO mission to China
- With the lack of global unity helping accelerate the coronavirus spread, it is positive news that an international team will be dispatched to find out more about how the outbreak started
The issue marred the World Health Assembly in May, as the US pushed for an inquiry into China’s handling of the outbreak and sharing of information. It is therefore positive news that the six-month milestone is to be marked by the dispatch of a WHO team to China, similar to a joint WHO-China international scientific mission in mid-February. “We can fight the virus better when we know everything about how it started,” Tedros said. The suspected link to a Wuhan wet market has been blurred by the lack of clear evidence, and by a number of early infections with no clear connection to the premises. At this late stage experts are sceptical about the prospects of the WHO inquiry unearthing new insights.
Science still has to reckon with politics. Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert with a non-profit think tank in New York, says the level of access granted to the WHO team may depend on who is in it and whether Beijing perceives it as neutral. On the other hand China will not want to be seen as uncooperative. It does not sound as if a breakthrough is just around the corner. But it is the best shot the world has of a multilateral approach to a lethal scourge that knows no boundaries and remains largely a mystery.