Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

what’s at stake for the WHO – and China – in the latest mission to Wuhan

what’s at stake for the WHO – and China – in the latest mission to Wuhan

The embattled UN health agency must know what data it wants and assess what it is given without fear or favour. China must also be prepared to accept that it is where the pathogen made the leap from animals to humans – if the evidence points to that source

As a World Health Organisation delegation prepares to again head to China to try to solve the mystery of the origins of the new coronavirus, the political stakes are high.

The United Nations agency is facing its worst publicity crisis in decades and is under unprecedented pressure to convince its growing number of critics that it can work with China to investigate contentious issues without fear or favour.

This time, the delegation will need to do more than add some polite comments to a technical report based on information from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention – as the first WHO mission to China did in February – if it is to silence the critics.

The WHO said the investigation would focus on the zoonotic – or animal – source of the coronavirus, formally known as Sars-CoV-2, and was sending two experts to the central Chinese city of Wuhan this weekend to discuss research parameters and data access.

Tracing the origin of a zoonotic disease requires meticulous detective work and the mission may just be the start of a long-term investigation.

Throughout the process, the WHO must maintain a cordial relationship with China to keep the door of cooperation open. But it will also have to assess and verify the data it receives and persuade Beijing to give it access to other information it deems important.

This will require deft diplomacy and scientific judgment – as will the choice of the team members. Half of the team will comprise Chinese experts while the rest will come from overseas. Choosing international specialists with knowledge of China may seem an obvious choice but they may not want to jeopardise their other research projects with Chinese partners and so hesitate to be critical.

It is unclear if any American scientists will be included.

The US administration has blamed China for the pandemic, insisting that it was the source of the pathogen.

Wuhan was certainly where large-scale human infections started and China should be open minded enough to accept – if proved – that it was where the coronavirus actually jumped from animals to humans. By the same token, the international community should also be open minded enough to accept that the first case may well have been elsewhere.

A paper by doctors at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital – a designated coronavirus treatment centre – and published in The Lancet in January said that many of the early cases had not been to the Huanan seafood wholesale market, which was initially thought to be the source of the pathogen. As reported earlier, by February, China had identified 266 infections that occurred last year, with the earliest dating back to November 17. Many of these are likely the results of retrospective study.

But for the WHO mission to assess these findings for itself, it will need access to crucial information collected by Chinese authorities using the country’s sophisticated contact tracing and disease surveillance networks. China has the capacity to track the geographical range of the early cases, whether they were in Wuhan, or scattered throughout wider Hubei province, or even in other provinces.

The authorities are continuing to comb through the data and it should not be surprising to see cases predating the earliest reported so far.

Scientists are also interested in the samples collected at the Huanan market before it was shut down. These samples may be contaminated or incomplete, but the mission team should at least see for themselves what was gathered.

Ultimately, it is in China’s interests to pinpoint the animal source of the coronavirus to shut the door of animal-to-human transmission, and by allowing in a WHO mission, it shows it is willing to work with other countries.

But this is on the proviso that it is not being targeted as a “culprit”.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said this week that as a next step, China wanted to see the research expand to a global scale.

Given some scientists in other countries said they found the virus in sewage collected last year, the call is reasonable, but China will first have to win more people over by sharing the data it has with the international community.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×