Thread by @TheSeeker268

"It is the great riddle of our time: how, when and where did the coronavirus emerge? Even insiders at the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is tasked with finding the answers, are alarmed to discover that China will “call the shots” in providing them."

https://twitter.com/TheSeeker268/status/1327999962790019075

"The investigation is a collaboration between a WHO team of foreign experts — approved by Beijing from a list submitted by UN member states — and Chinese scientists.

However, there is still no timeline for the international team to enter China..."

"...and no guarantee whom they may interview, what records they will be able to see and whether they will be allowed to visit Wuhan... Instead, the WHO and Beijing have agreed that Chinese researchers will conduct the early stages of the investigation."

"After the virus appeared, Chinese researchers and doctors raised the alert. The response of Communist Party officials was to silence them and order the destruction of laboratory samples while insisting that there was no contagion."

"Chinese scientists then released the genetic sequencing of the virus, only for Beijing to claim credit and be praised by the WHO. So it is hardly surprising that questions have been raised about the investigation."

"What is not mentioned in the terms of reference is any research into the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which has a biosecurity laboratory where coronavirus research is undertaken and is just a few miles from the Huanan market."

"A Sunday Times investigation revealed that a coronavirus analysed at the institute had been found in a bat cave where workers died from a mysterious respiratory disease."

https://twitter.com/TheSeeker268/status/1279472302145417216?s=20

"But there seems no prospect that the possibility of a lab mishap will be investigated. The institute’s leadership has insisted that no workers have tested positive, that it did not hold live viruses and that there was no possible link to the cluster of infections."

“I guess the Chinese government might allow Chinese researchers to meet the WIV chiefs as window dressing for the WHO, but don’t expect any serious questioning or foreign involvement,” said a European public health expert who has worked on previous WHO missions.

"Also clearly not up for debate will be any review of the delays and cover-ups in China’s early response. The virus rampaged through Wuhan while the authorities insisted that there was no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission."

China and the WHO “have been doing this dance for 10 months”, said Gostin. “Now this is like going to a murder scene 10 months later when the site has been scrubbed up completely.”