Two members of the WHO team have blocked access to China due to failed coronavirus antibody test

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An international team of 13 scientists was due to land in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 on Thursday, where cases of the coronavirus were first recorded. But two members of that team remain in Singapore, the WHO said in a series of tweets, after they “tested positive for IgM antibodies.”
IgM antibodies are among the earliest possible signs of a coronavirus infection, but can also occur in someone who has been vaccinated or previously infected (but is no longer a carrier) of the virus. False positives are also possible in such tests.

Travelers flying to China have been required to show negative results for an IgM antibody test and a PCR test since November 2020 before being allowed in.

The scientists in question are being retested and had previously been tested multiple times and found negative for coronavirus, the organization said, adding that those scientists who have been able to travel to China, “will begin their work immediately during the 2-week quarantine protocol. for international travelers. ”

Speaking at a regular press conference Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the country will “ strictly follow the relevant epidemic prevention regulations and requirements and provide corresponding support and facilities to WHO experts coming to China to conduct international carry out cooperation in tracing the origin. of the virus. “

When asked about the two scientists who were denied access, Zhao declined to comment and ordered the reports to ask “the relevant authorities.”

State broadcaster CGTN reported Thursday that the WHO team upon arrival in the country “underwent both throat swabs and serum antibody tests at the airport.”

Health workers stand next to buses in a cordoned-off area, where arriving travelers should be quarantined, at the international airport in Wuhan, China on January 14, 2021, following the arrival of a World Health Organization (WHO) research team. the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Delayed trip

This is the second delay for the WHO team, which was due to arrive in China earlier this month but was blocked from flying there by authorities, prompting a rare rebuke from the United Nations agency.

“I am very disappointed with this news,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and have made it clear once again that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team.”

Tedros added that the WHO was “eager to get the mission up and running as soon as possible” and that he had been assured that Beijing was speeding up the internal procedure for “early deployment”.

That deployment began this week when the majority of the team arrived in Wuhan, although they will be limited in what they can do if they complete a mandatory two-week quarantine.

Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who heads the Virosciences Department at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam and is part of the research team heading to China, said earlier this month that they were “ready”.

Koopmans said they have been told that nothing is prohibited while in China and that the team will work with their Chinese colleagues’ by looking at the data, talking to people with expertise and concluding what has been done and what can be done. build on.”

She said it was important to understand the origins of how the virus made its leap to humans, because “there is no country that is not at risk of developing disease. It is something we need to understand so that the the whole world can prepare. “

“We really have to be patient and not judge. It is painstaking work, it will take time,” Koopmans said.

Political tensions

The United States and Australia have been in the lead in criticizing China’s handling of the early stages of the pandemic, accusing Beijing of downplaying its severity and preventing an effective response until late.

Outgoing US President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed China for the global pandemic and announced that the US would end its relationship with the WHO, saying that China had not correctly reported the information it had about the coronavirus and was under pressure exerted on the WHO to ‘deceive the world’.
The US has demanded transparency in WHO activities in China. In November, Garrett Grigsby of the US Department of Health and Human Services told the WHO meeting that the terms of the investigation into China “had not been negotiated in a transparent manner” and “the investigation itself appears to be inconsistent” with his mandate.
A wealth of confidential documents obtained by CNN last year from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Hubei Province – where the virus was first discovered in 2019 – showed how Chinese officials gave the world more optimistic data than they provided internally access, due to an initial under-reporting of the number of cases during the early stages of the outbreak.
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As countries around the world grapple with new peaks and outbreaks of infection, China appears to be recovering. Last month, the country posted positive economic growth for the second consecutive quarter.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi praised China’s anti-pandemic efforts at home and abroad, saying the country “launched a global humanitarian emergency campaign” and “helped reach consensus on a global response to Covid-19. “

As the WHO team prepared to board, Chinese officials and state media have questioned the origin of the virus, with Wang himself claiming that “growing research suggests that the pandemic was likely triggered by separate outbreaks in multiple places around the world. the world.”

CNN’s Beijing office has reported.

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