Coronavirus: WHO mission notes consensus between international and Chinese experts for joint report on origins
- Peter Ben Embarek says team will finalise technical parts of the initial report in next few days
- Mission conceived as a collaborative effort not ‘investigation of supposed wrongdoing’, says WHO’s Michael Ryan
“The process is that the international team in the coming days, together with our Chinese counterparts, will finalise the interim report first, and then work on the full report afterwards,” he said. “It is a joint report between the two groups. We have worked on this together, and therefore it is not a question of one side having a say on what the other side is concluding, but more having a consensus document on our joint key findings, conclusions, and recommendations.”
Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies programme, added that the mission was envisioned as a “collaborative effort” with China, rather than an “investigation of supposed wrongdoing or referring to any non-existent investigatory powers that WHO might have”.
“Clearly, there is a political layer on this that has been difficult for all parties to manage,” he said. “It would be useful at this point if we could step back from that and really focus on what progress has been made, scientifically in the understanding, and to clearly identify where further progress will need to be made in the future in terms of future studies.”