For months, China has resisted letting World Health Organization experts in the country to trace the origins of the global pandemic, worrying that such an investigation could draw attention to the government’s early mistakes in dealing with the outbreak.
After a worldwide uproar, the Chinese government finally conceded and allowed a team of 14 scientists to visit laboratories, disease control centers and markets for live animals in the city of Wuhan.
But instead of reproach, WTO experts on Tuesday praised Chinese officials and endorsed their critical parts of their narrative, including some that were controversial.
The WHO team opened the door to a theory accepted by Chinese officials, saying it was possible that the virus had spread to humans through freezing food, which has an idea that scientists outside China got. And the experts undertook to investigate reports that months before the outbreak in Wuhan at the end of 2019, the virus could possibly be outside China, a long-standing demand from Chinese officials.
“We really need to look for evidence of earlier distribution wherever it is,” Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist in the WTO team, told a three-hour news conference in Wuhan, where the experts shared their preliminary findings. with Chinese scientists.
Some scientists are concerned that shifting attention to other countries may lose focus. Determining what happened in the early days of the outbreak in China is considered critical to avoiding another pandemic.
The WHO has been considered by design to its member states and has long struck a diplomatic tone in dealing with the Chinese government, which is notorious for investigating outside. The investigation is still at its earliest stage – it could take years – and WHO officials have promised a careful and transparent investigation of data and research by China and other countries.
The findings, announced Tuesday, still give Beijing a victory in public relations as it is being attacked by officials in the United States and elsewhere for its initial efforts to conceal the outbreak.
“This is the most authoritative support China has received in terms of its official narrative,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Foreign Relations Council.
Mr. Huang said the WHO should continue to push China for data and access.
“One visit is not enough time to thoroughly investigate,” he said. “They are doing all the work within the parameters set by the Chinese government.”
The team did not report major breakthroughs, but said it had found important clues. The virus spread in Wuhan for several weeks before appearing on the Huanan Seafood Wholesale market. Some of the earliest clusters were initially reported. It probably appeared in bats and spread to humans through another small mammal, although experts said they could not identify the species.
“All the work that has been done on the virus and to identify its origin still points to a natural reservoir,” said Peter K. Ben Embarek, a food safety scientist at the WHO who leads the team of experts , said news conference.
Dr. Ben Embarek said it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus could have been accidentally leaked from a laboratory studying bat coronavirus in Wuhan. According to some skeptical scientists, it is worth investigating, although it remains largely unfounded. This theory differs from one generally discredited by some Republicans in the United States, who claimed that a laboratory in China manufactured the virus for use as a bioweapon.
The team met last week with leaders of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which houses a modern laboratory, and dr. Ben Embarek said that ‘it is very unlikely that anything could escape from such a place’, referring to safety protocols there.
The WTO experts on Tuesday sought to focus their comments on the scientific aspects of the mission. But the investigation is often overshadowed by politics.
Some officials in the United States and other Western countries have questioned the independence of the WTO inquiry, arguing that China wants to control the outcome. The government has repeatedly delayed the visit by WTO experts and is trying to limit the scope of their mission. And the authorities are strongly in charge of research related to the virus in China, which raises concerns that they are trying to prevent the disclosure of embarrassment.
The Chinese government tried to shift the focus elsewhere, and went on to suggest that the virus may be overseas. The Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, recently suggested that the United States allow the WHO to send investigators there as part of its investigation.
During the news conference on Tuesday, Chinese officials strongly promoted the idea that the virus comes from abroad, arguing that the search for the origin of the virus should focus on places outside China.
The investigation will “not be confined to any place”, said Liang Wannian, who led the team of Chinese scientists assisting the WTO mission. He said Chinese researchers had found no evidence that the virus had spread widely in China in December.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news conference that the United States would wait to see the WTO report before drawing conclusions about its findings and how transparent Beijing was with investigators.
The WTO team members said during their visit to Wuhan that they were trying to remove politics and promised to ask difficult questions. While in Wuhan, where they were quarantined for two weeks before starting fieldwork, they were interviewed by the news media and taken down to be tested for the coronavirus. They turned to social media to give more transparency in the visit and posted photos and comments about their conversations with Chinese scientists.
The experts repeatedly praised their Chinese counterparts, saying the government had worked in good faith to provide access to key sites, including laboratories and markets. At the news conference on Tuesday, the experts were cordial and did not dispute the statements of their Chinese hosts.
The team will be under pressure in the coming months to not only solve difficult scientific questions, but to show that they are conducting a fair and tough investigation.
“The strategic story of China is now: ‘It was the part of China in the investigation, and we did it, and let’s move on,'” said Daniel R. Lucey, an infectious disease specialist at Georgetown University. said.
Dr. Lucey said the experts will have to make a breakthrough to show credibility.
“If the team does not think of something substantial, there is also a risk that people will say it is just a show.”
Albee Zhang contributed research.