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‘Politics at play’ as US offers to help WHO coronavirus team to China
- American health specialists offering to take part in the international mission ‘have not been invited’
- Beijing says it welcomes all experts while the UN agency says arrangements are being finalised
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Sarah Zhengin Beijing
China’s apparent failure to respond to a US offer of help with a coronavirus outbreak points to politicisation of the health crisis between the two countries, according to an analyst.
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An advance team of international specialists led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) landed in Beijing on Monday, on a trip the WHO said was meant to better understand the Chinese public health response, the origin of the virus and the severity of the disease.
As of Wednesday, the coronavirus, which first spread from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, had infected more than 60,000 people, killing 1,367, according to China’s National Health Commission.
The advanced team’s arrival followed talks at the end of January between WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
More experts are expected to follow as part of the mission but it is not known when they will land in China.
Nancy Messonnier, director of the US’ National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, said American specialists seeking to join the WHO’s mission to China had not yet received any assistance, Bloomberg reported.
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