WHO experts begin meetings with Chinese scientists today

WHO experts in Wuhan began meeting with Chinese scientists today, with the group planning a number of visits to labs, markets and hospitals.

The group had to first spend two weeks in quarantine at their arrival in China.“First face to face meeting with our colleagues. Correction: facemask to facemask given the medical restrictions. Discussing our visiting program,” Marion Koopmans, a virologist at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, tweeted on Friday.

“China teamleader prof Wannian joking about some technical glitches. Nice to see our colleagues after lengthy zoom meetings,” she added.

The experts are scheduled to spend a couple of weeks in China. “It is important to remember that the success of this mission and origin-tracing is 100% depending on access to the relevant sources,” Thea Fischer, a Danish member of the team, said on Thursday.

“No matter how competent we are, how hard we work and how many stones we try to turn, this can only be possible with the support from China,” she said.

The origin of COVID-19 has been highly politicised with former US President Donald Trump blaming China, an accusation that the Eastern country strongly rejected.

via Reuters/BBC