WUHAN, China – Zhang Hai has a warning to scientists led by the World Health Organization who are researching the origin of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China: Don’t be fooled.
“If you just work behind doors with government officials, going to places and reading documents organized by them, you will be easily mistaken,” said Zhang, who said his father died in February 2020 after going to a hospital for an operation. routine fracture and contract the virus.
When the team of WHO scientists began fieldwork at the origins of Covid-19 in Wuhan on Friday, Zhang is among a group of bereaved Chinese families seeking an audience with international experts.
They accuse authorities of hiding information about the virus at the start of the outbreak, which has already killed more than 2 million people worldwide, and want answers.
“If WHO dances to its tune, the government will have a good excuse to reject the relatives of dead patients who are trying to hold the government to account,” said Zhang, who was born in Wuhan and now lives in Shenzhen.
Zhang said he faced surveillance and harassment by Chinese authorities for making public complaints, including regular police visits to his home. Before the visit of WHO scientists, he said that a group of social messages WeChat of which he is a member, with about 100 bereaved people, was closed.
NBC News was unable to independently verify its allegations, and Chinese officials were not available to comment on their allegations. WHO has yet to respond to requests from NBC News to comment on a possible meeting with a group of bereaved family members.
However, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said at a press conference in Geneva on Friday that the team “will leave, but will be transported by bus anywhere, so that they will have no contact with the community” .
“They will only have contact with several people who are being organized as part of the study,” he added.
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Although WHO officials say they are simply in China to keep up with the science, Zhang’s comments are part of a highly politicized environment surrounding Covid-19’s journey and origin.
The Wuhan mission has already been affected by delays, concerns about access and disputes between China and the United States, which under then President Donald Trump accused Beijing of hiding the extent of the initial outbreak.
Beijing, for its part, promoted the idea that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in Wuhan, with state media citing the alleged presence of the virus in imported frozen food packaging.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian, said on Friday that WHO and Chinese experts are working together to trace the origin of the virus, but stressed that the mission is not an investigation.
“I would like to emphasize that exchanges and cooperation in origin tracking between WHO experts and Chinese professionals are part of a global study, not an investigation,” Zhao told a news conference in Beijing.
A WHO team member visiting Wuhan, zoologist Peter Daszak, told NBC News: “We are here to do science.”
“However, we know that there is geopolitics on all sides of it. It is very intense now … but science will come out in the end, it pushes for the truth.”
Daszak said that he and others would analyze the virus data and track, but were aware of the “sensitive” work environment, noting that “each side has something to lose in this investigation”.
“I think that if science can speak, it will help heal this wound and help us move forward,” he added.
Janis Mackey Frayer reported from Wuhan, China; Adela Suliman reported from London.
Reuters contributed to this report.
