A recent WHO delegation to Wuhan investigated various hypotheses on Covid-19 origins. You can find the briefing here.
Since yesterday there are various articles in mainstream media outlets claiming that China refused to hand "key information" to the investigations. In a New York Times article for example, they provide quotes from several members of the WHO delegation, but there is no indication or even insinuation from the investigators that China withheld or refused information besides this:
In a similar fashion, in the Wall Street Journal article on the same topic, Dr.Dwyer is quoted saying:
When Dr.Dwyer was interviewed by 9News however, we read the following (here Dr.Dwyer is quoted rather extensively in comparison with WSJ and NYT):
So far, it seems the claim that "China refused to hand key information" is based entirely on (interpretations of) what Dr.Dwyer said. Dr.Peter Daszak and Dr. Thea Fischer, both members of the WHO delegation, rebuked the claim:
Moreover, an Associated Press report on the same issue states:
Since yesterday there are various articles in mainstream media outlets claiming that China refused to hand "key information" to the investigations. In a New York Times article for example, they provide quotes from several members of the WHO delegation, but there is no indication or even insinuation from the investigators that China withheld or refused information besides this:
"We asked for that on a number of occasions and they gave us some of that, but not necessarily enough to do the sorts of analyses you would do," said Dominic Dwyer, an Australian microbiologist on the W.H.O. team, referring to the confirmed cases.
The news that Chinese officials did not share raw data with the W.H.O. experts was reported earlier by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The Wall Street Journal.
In a similar fashion, in the Wall Street Journal article on the same topic, Dr.Dwyer is quoted saying:
"They showed us a couple of examples, but that's not the same as doing all of them, which is standard epidemiological investigation," Dominic Dwyer, an Australian microbiologist on the WHO team told the Journal. "So then, you know, the interpretation of that data becomes more limited from our point of view, although the other side might see it as being quite good."
When Dr.Dwyer was interviewed by 9News however, we read the following (here Dr.Dwyer is quoted rather extensively in comparison with WSJ and NYT):
"The Chinese were very hospitable hosts, everyone worked together very well, it was a joint mission after all," he said.
"There were some clear differences of opinion and there were some quite firm and heated exchanges over things but in general everyone was trying to do the right thing and certainly WHO got more data than they've ever had before, and that's some real progress."
Professor Dwyer said one of the key differences was trying to get an agreement about what was happening just prior to the virus outbreak in the market in Wuhan.
"Some of the other evidence for example - genetic analysis of the virus and so on - would show the virus has probably been circulating maybe from mid-November, early December," he said.
"We also know the Chinese were reporting the people who went to hospital were really sick, but we now know - and to be fair they didn't know at the time. But we now know there's a lot of ordinary transmission going on between otherwise healthy people, so there must've been many, many more cases in December than were identified."
So far, it seems the claim that "China refused to hand key information" is based entirely on (interpretations of) what Dr.Dwyer said. Dr.Peter Daszak and Dr. Thea Fischer, both members of the WHO delegation, rebuked the claim:
Moreover, an Associated Press report on the same issue states:
WUHAN, China (AP) — A member of the World Health Organization expert team investigating the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan said the Chinese side granted full access to all sites and personnel they requested — a level of openness that even he hadn't expected.
Peter Daszak told The Associated Press on Friday that team members had submitted a deeply considered list of places and people to include in their investigation and that no objections were raised.
"We were asked where we wanted to go. We gave our hosts a list ... and you can see from where we've been, we've been to all the key places," Daszak said.
Some, including people close to former President Donald Trump, had speculated the institute may have been the origin of the outbreak because of its large collection of bat virus specimens and that Chinese authorities were covering up the truth.
However, Daszak said they were met during their visit to the high-security institute with a level of openness even he hadn't anticipated, and that suspicions surrounding it had been "politicized on a global scale."