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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaScience

Coronavirus: US health officials ‘in the dark’ about first WHO China mission

  • Emails from the inbox of Anthony Fauci reveal American efforts to understand early weeks of the pandemic
  • Correspondence obtained by US news outlet in response to FOI request

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The emails came from the inbox of Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Photo: AFP
Simone McCarthyandHolly Chik
US public health officials were “in the dark” about whether their experts would be included in a WHO coronavirus mission to China early last year, according to newly released emails obtained by US outlet BuzzFeed News.
The disclosure was one of a number from more than 3,000 pages of emails from the inbox of Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the early phase of the pandemic.

While Covid-19 has inflamed political tensions between the United States and China, Fauci’s emails show contact between scientists from the two countries, and US efforts to understand a virus that would later kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

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The emails spanning several months in the first half of last year were obtained by the news outlet in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and released by a BuzzFeed reporter on Tuesday.

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According to the correspondence, a US official contacted the World Health Organization for details after reading a news report about an advance team of WHO officials heading to China for a field mission to understand the disease.

The US authorities appeared to not be informed about who from their side would be part of the mission.

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“I’m reaching out to get more clarity on the WHO experts team issue,” Garrett Grigsby, director of the department’s office of global affairs, wrote on February 9, a week before the mission began.

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