WHO urges China to share Covid origins data, five years on from pandemic’s emergence
CNNHong Kong CNN — The World Health Organization has urged China to share data to help understand the origins of Covid-19, five years on from the start of the pandemic in the Chinese city of Wuhan. “Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics.” China’s Foreign Ministry defended the country’s handling of Covid-19 data at a regular news conference Tuesday. “China has shared the most data and research results on the issue of Covid-19 origin tracing, and has made the greatest contribution to global tracing research,” Mao added. WHO officials have also criticized China’s tight control of data access, with one official calling its lack of data disclosure “simply inexcusable” in 2023. Chinese disease control officials responded at the time, saying China had provided the WHO’s expert group with all information it had on the origins of the virus “without withholding any cases, samples, or their testing and analysis results.” For years, the global health agency has sought access to test results from workers at the market, as well as other raw data that China collected early on in the pandemic.