WHO readies Covid-19 origins report as demands grow for more transparency on China investigation

US welcomes decision to release full report but group of 26 academics says a new, independent probe is needed

In open letter, scientists say WHO mission to Wuhan in January lacked independence necessary for thorough study

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Members of the World Health Organization’s coronavirus expert investigation group at a hospital in Wuhan during their visit earlier in the year. Photo: TPG

Published: 5:10pm, 8 Mar 2021Updated: 5:38pm, 8 Mar 2021

The World Health Organization has said it will release a full report next week from its Covid-19 fact-finding trip to China amid growing concerns about lack of access to relevant data in the country where the disease was first identified in Wuhan city more than a year ago.

The WHO cancelled an earlier plan to release a summary of the team’s trip to Wuhan, which concluded on February 9, opting instead to release the full report in the week beginning March 15. WHO health emergencies programme director Mike Ryan said the decision was made to get all the information available from the visit on the table at once.

“Given the interest in this area, and given the tremendous demand for detailed information, we saw with that a huge and understandable demand for information,” he said.

Some of the international researchers who travelled to Wuhan in January for the 28-day mission had earlier indicated they did not get access to all the data they would like to have seen during the visit.

The US and Britain have called on China’s authorities to share all information, while a group of academics has said a new, independent probe is needed.

The White House welcomed the decision not to release a summary before the full report. “That was a positive step, which was taken in part because of our involvement and engagement,” press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Last week a group of 26 scientists and other professionals said the WHO mission to Wuhan lacked the independence needed for a full investigation.

“Because we believe the joint [WHO] team process and efforts to date do not constitute a thorough, credible, and transparent investigation, we call on the international community to put in place a structure and process that does,” the group wrote, in a letter published in The Wall Street Journal in the US and Le Monde in France.