Exclusive | Wuhan lab and web of Chinese red tape that delayed US scientists getting access to coronavirus
- Emails show that scientists at the Galveston National Laboratory repeatedly urged their counterparts to share the virus in early 2020 to speed up vital research
- Despite a warning that China ‘would face heavy criticism’ if the process stalled, the Americans hit a bureaucratic wall
The US government-affiliated lab would wait days as a WIV scientist overseeing the transfer reported little progress in a process that appeared stymied by a need for Chinese government approval, emails obtained by a freedom of information request to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) show.
The exchange highlights challenges in international pathogen sharing and points to China’s reluctance to share these materials in the critical early days of the pandemic, experts briefed on the documents said. For the researchers in Texas, it meant lost time.
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James Le Duc, the now-retired director of the Texan lab, warned his Chinese counterparts delays could hurt China’s international standing and deprive scientists of material for their own research
“You are in a very challenging position and doing a great job. I would however recommend that you organise and quickly implement a way to share reference [virus] isolates,” he wrote in a January 22 email to Yuan Zhiming, director of the National Biosafety Laboratory at the WIV, which also looped in the head of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Gao Fu.
