The WHO sent a team of investigators to Wuhan, the epicenter of the worldwide pandemic, on a supposed mission to figure out where the virus originated. Since their arrival in Wuhan on Jan. 28, they have visited many areas in Wuhan, including two local hospitals and a seafood market.
On Jan. 30, the WHO team took a break from their "investigations" by visiting the exhibition in Wuhan. This exhibition, which was opened in October 2020, displays Chinese propaganda regarding how they supposedly successfully responded to the pandemic. The content of the exhibition praised the CCP and its highest officials for their organized leadership and for effectively halting the spread of the virus in the country. This visit made Scott furious.
"Unbelievable," wrote Scott on his Twitter account. "The @WHO continues to give oxygen to CCP propaganda and COVID lies. Biden's Admin should rethink rejoining the WHO without significant reform and reassurances they will stop parroting General Secretary Xi." (Related: Mike Pompeo calls for investigation into Wuhan lab, but Biden likely won't hold the CCP accountable for bioweapon release.)
The WHO received a lot of criticism during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak due to its role in helping China cover up the virus. It initially parroted the claim of the CCP that it was not contagious, despite warnings to the contrary from nearby nations like Taiwan.
Now, the WHO's "investigative team" in Wuhan is already being criticized for potentially being an instrument of the communist regime to promote its own coronavirus narrative.
Chinese officials have even begun denying that the WHO team is an investigative team. Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that what the WHO is doing in cooperation with Chinese professionals is "part of a global study" that is based on "exchanges and cooperation on origin-tracing," not an investigation.
WHO team's field visits in Wuhan are heavily choreographed by CCP officials
On Jan. 31, a day after the CCP toured the WHO team through its propaganda exhibition, the team visited a market in Wuhan where one of the first reported clusters of infections was discovered.
The market, known as the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Center, has been sealed off from the public since the beginning of the outbreak in January of last year. Journalists at the scene even noted that, after the investigative team was quickly ushered into the premises, the guards were quick to barricade any entrances and openings to block anybody from viewing what is inside.
The experts also did not take any questions from the journalists. Security staff even told the reporters to leave and threatened a photographer who was sitting on a tall leader for a better view by shaking it.
"Very informative and critical for our joint teams to understand the epidemiology of COVID as it started to spread at the end of 2019," said team member Peter Daszak on Twitter following the closely monitored market tour.
It's difficult to know how much Daszak and the other members of the investigative learned from their trip. The team left in a convoy after only about an hour in the market.
Chinese state media have been attempting to downplay the role the Huanan market played as an epicenter of the virus, claiming that "subsequent investigations" have put into question the theory that the market was the main source of the outbreak.
The state-run tabloid Global Times argued that "the possibility that the coronavirus was passed on from cold-chain products into Wuhan, or more specifically, to the Huanan wet market … cannot be ruled out."
The WHO team also visited two disease control centers in the province: the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and its city office in Wuhan. It is once again unclear how much the team actually learned from its visits. Daszak told reporters that the team met with Chinese scientists and that it was a "really good meeting, really important," and refused to give away any other details.
WHO COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove promised that the team is planning to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology. This is where certain theories suggest that the coronavirus may have originated from.
"The more detail you have on the ground, the more questions you have. The team will follow the information. They will follow the science and continue to ask questions and analyze data," said Van Kerkhove, who said that the team must decide – with the permission of the Chinese state – where else they should conduct field visits.
"We are in the field with experts from 10 countries looking to find answers," said Dr. Michael Ryan, emergencies chief for the WHO, as he sent a call to the public to help the team and provide them with more information regarding how the pandemic could have started.
"If you have the answers, if you think you have some answers, please let us know."
Meanwhile, WHO officials continue to defend the Chinese state. The organization's higher-ups in Geneva, Switzerland are pushing back against suggestions that China is not being very forthcoming with the investigation.
Learn more about how the coronavirus truly started by reading the latest articles at Pandemic.news.
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