The World Health Organization's director-general is expressing disappointment as he says Chinese officials have delayed allowing experts in to examine the coronavirus' origins.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a news conference on Tuesday said that although members of a team of scientists tasked with investigating the origins of COVID-19 began departing for China from their home countries within the last 24 hours, "today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the team's arrival in China," The Associated Press reports.
"I'm very disappointed with this news, given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute," he said.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The World Health Organization previously announced that an international team of scientists would travel to Wuhan, where COVID-19 was first identified, for this investigation in January, BBC News reports. Following Tedros' comments critical of China, Axios's Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian' wrote that it was notable he "would choose to finally speak out against China's last-minute foot-dragging" after Chinese officials previously delayed agreeing to WHO being involved in such an investigation in "an almost absurdly lengthy delay" of almost a year. The AP also noted that this was a "rare critique of Beijing" from the head of WHO.
Tedros also said Tuesday, however, that he has been "assured that China is speeding up the internal procedures for the earliest possible deployment," adding that "we are eager to get the mission underway as soon as possible."
-
‘The worry is far from fanciful’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
How are Americans bracing for the end of SNAP?TODAY'S BIG QUESTION Millions depend on supplemental federal food funds that are set to expire this month, as the government shutdown begins to be acutely felt
-
Book review: ‘Joyride: A Memoir’Feature A journalist’s story of how she chased and accomplished her dreams
-
FDA OKs generic abortion pill, riling the rightSpeed Read The drug in question is a generic version of mifepristone, used to carry out two-thirds of US abortions
-
RFK Jr. vaccine panel advises restricting MMRV shotSpeed Read The committee voted to restrict access to a childhood vaccine against chickenpox
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panelspeed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
