WUHAN, China (AP) – A relative of a coronavirus victim in China demands a visit to a World Health Organization expert team and says it should speak to affected families who claim they are being muted by the Chinese government.
China only approved the visit of researchers under the auspices of the UN agency after months of negotiations. It has not specified whether they will be allowed to collect evidence or talk to families, only that the team will be able to exchange views with Chinese scientists.
“I hope WHO experts do not become a tool to spread lies,” said Zhang Hai, whose father died of COVID-19 on February 1, 2020, after traveling to the Chinese city of Wuhan and becoming infected. “We have searched relentlessly for the truth. This was a criminal act and I do not want the WHO to come to China to cover up these crimes. ”
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The WHO team, which arrived in Wuhan on January 14 to investigate the origin of the virus, is expected to begin fieldwork later this week after a 14-day quarantine.
Zhang, a Wuhan resident who now lives in the southern city of Shenzhen, has organized relatives of coronavirus victims in China to demand accountability from officials.
Many are angry that the state has downplayed the virus at the start of the outbreak, and have tried to file lawsuits against the Wuhan government.
The relatives have been under enormous pressure from the authorities not to speak out. According to interviews with Zhang and other family members, officials have dismissed the lawsuits, repeatedly questioned Zhang and others and threatened to fire family members of those speaking to the foreign media.
Zhang said the family members’ chat groups were closed shortly after the WHO team’s arrival in Wuhan and accused the city government of silencing them.
“Don’t pretend we don’t exist, that we’re not accountable,” said Zhang. “You destroyed all our platforms, but we still want to let everyone know through the media that we have not given up.”
The WHO says her visit to China is a scientific mission to investigate the origin of the virus, no attempt to blame, and that “in-depth interviews and reviews” of early cases are needed. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China initially rejected demands for an international investigation after the Trump administration blamed Beijing for the virus, but bowed to global pressure to investigate its origins in May.
On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease official in the United States, told the World Economic Forum that the origins of the virus that brought the world to its knees are still unknown, “a big black box,” it’s terrible. “
The mission was repeatedly delayed by negotiations and setbacks, one of which gave rise to an unusual public complaint from the WHO head.
The arrival of the WHO mission has rekindled controversy over whether China allowed the virus to spread worldwide by responding too slowly at first.
From the outset, WHO officials have sought to get more cooperation from China, with limited success.
Audio recordings of internal WHO meetings Obtained by The Associated Press and aired for the first time on Tuesday, show that even while the WHO publicly praised China, officials privately complained about not getting enough information.
The UN agency has no enforcement powers, so it must rely on the goodwill of the member states.
Keiji Fukuda, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong, has called the visit a “imagery-building mission”, with China keen to be transparent and the WHO keen to show that it is taking action.
“Both China and the WHO are hoping to get some brownie points,” said Fukuda, a former WHO official. “But it all comes down to what the team has access to. Will they really be able to ask the questions they want to ask? “
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Kang reported from Beijing.