The White House has concerns about whether China duly communicated raw data on the coronavirus to the World Health Organization, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th February, 2021) The White House has concerns about whether China duly communicated raw data on the coronavirus to the World Health Organization, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Saturday.
"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," he said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that WHO investigators were denied access to personalized data on more than a hundred early cases of COVID-19, which emerged in Wuhan in December 2019.
Peter Ben Embarek, the head of WHO's fact-finding mission to China, presented the early findings after returning from Wuhan this week. He said it did not seem plausible that the virus had escaped a lab.
Sullivan stressed that the credibility of the UN health agency's report was a "paramount priority."
"It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alternation by the Chinese government," he added.
Then-President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the health organization last year, after accusing it of being "China-centric." Sullivan said that reengaging the WHO meant holding it to the highest standards.
