A leading official for the World Health Organization defended the Chinese Communist Party from claims that the country’s data about the coronavirus should not be trusted.
WHO Special Envoy David Nabarro told Meet the Press on Sunday that he does not like being told that he should not trust data from China. He said that Chinese officials have been transparent because they allowed international inspectors to review the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan in mid-February.
“We don’t have, in the World Health Organization, the power to go and inspect beyond what countries tell us. That’s been made clear in the treaty that governments agreed in 2005 on how nations work together and how the WHO operates,” Nabarro said. “But I say this, that they [China] did invite a team, pulled together by the World Health Organization, to come and inspect everything in mid-February.”
Nabarro said there were “no restrictions” placed on the inspectors when they conducted their inquiry in mid-February, but the coronavirus outbreak was already a global problem by the time officials were allowed into the country. The outbreak is believed to have begun in Wuhan in December, and the first U.S. death occurred on Feb. 29. Prior to that, American officials were not allowed into the country.
Because U.S. officials were not allowed into the country during the first two months of China’s outbreak, members of the Intelligence Community have doubted the death toll China has put forward about the virus. Nabarro, however, said he does not like it when China is questioned.
“We have been given access to the information we requested, and so, therefore, I do not like, at any time, to say we don’t believe,” Nabarro explained. “We believe what we’ve got. We work with what we’ve got. That’s how we operate in the World Health Organization.”
To Nabarro’s point, the World Health Organization has appeared to trust China every step of the way, including by promoting a Chinese study in mid-January that claimed the coronavirus could not spread between humans.
President Trump has threatened to pull funding from the WHO because he believes the organization is “China-centric.” Nabarro said such a move would be “so unfortunate,” adding, “It’s too important to have anything that disturbs the functioning of the international system at this time.”
