National security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the United States is troubled by the way the World Health Organization has conducted its COVID-19 investigation and called on transparency from China.
Sullivan put out a Saturday statement that began by lauding the WHO for its “important” mission and said that the administration has “deep respect for its experts and the work they are doing every day to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and advance global health and health security.”
While Sullivan noted how President Biden reversed former President Donald Trump’s move to disengage with the WHO, he also condemned its communication and investigation into exactly how the coronavirus arose.
“We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them. It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government,” Sullivan said.
Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, the leader of the WHO team in China, dismissed the need for further study of the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis on Tuesday. He called the scenario “extremely unlikely.”
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday appeared to push back on Ben Embarek’s assessment and emphasized that the origin of the virus, which is believed to be somewhere in China, needs further investigation.
“The independent expert team to study the origins of the COVID-19 virus has completed its trip to China. … The expert team is still working on its final report, and we look forward to receiving both the report and a full briefing,” Tedros said. “Some questions have been raised as to whether some hypotheses have been discarded. I want to clarify that all hypotheses remain open and require further study.”
The United States wants all of the available data about the coronavirus’s origins from China, Sullivan said Saturday.
“To better understand this pandemic and prepare for the next one, China must make available its data from the earliest days of the outbreak,” he said. “Going forward, all countries, including China, should participate in a transparent and robust process for preventing and responding to health emergencies — so that the world learns as much as possible as soon as possible.”
Since COVID-19 first emerged, it has sickened more than 100 million and killed nearly 2.4 million people across the globe.
