WUHAN, China (AP) – A team from the World Health Organization came out of quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday to begin fieldwork on a mission to investigate the origins of the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
The researchers, who were forced to isolate themselves for 14 days after arriving in China, left their quarantine hotel with their luggage – including at least four yoga mats – in the middle of the afternoon and headed for another hotel.
The mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged errors in its initial response to the outbreak. A big question is where the Chinese side will allow researchers to go and who they can talk to.
Yellow barriers blocked the hotel’s entrance, keeping the media at bay. Before the researchers boarded the bus, workers wearing protective clothing and face shields could be seen carrying their luggage, including two musical instruments and a dumbbell.
The hotel staff waved to the researchers, who wore face masks. The bus driver was wearing a white full-body protective suit. They drove about 30 minutes to a Hilton hotel by the lake.
Former WHO official Keiji Fukuda, who is not part of the team in Wuhan, warned against the expectation of any progress, saying it could take years before any firm conclusions can be made about the origin of the virus.
“It was well over a year ago when it all started,” he said earlier this month. “Much of the physical evidence will be gone. People’s memories are inaccurate and the physical layouts of many places are likely to be different than they were. ”
Among the places they can visit are the Huanan Seafood Market, which was linked to many of the first cases, as well as research institutes and hospitals that treated patients at the height of the outbreak.
It was not disclosed whether they would leave Wuhan. One possible source of the virus is bats in caves in rural Yunnan province, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) southwest of Wuhan.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the experts would have talks, visits and inspections in China to carry out exchanges and cooperation on virus scanning. He did not provide details.
The mission came only after considerable disputes between the two sides, which led to a rare WHO complaint that China was taking too long to make the final arrangements.
China, which strongly opposes an independent investigation that it cannot fully control, said the matter was complicated and that the Chinese medical team was concerned about new clusters of viruses in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.
Although WHO was initially criticized, especially by the United States, for not being critical enough of the Chinese response, it recently accused China and other countries of moving too slowly at the beginning of the outbreak, obtaining a rare admission from the Chinese side that it could have been better.
Overall, however, China vehemently defended its response, possibly out of concern for reputation or even financial costs, should it be considered insufficient.
Chinese authorities and state media also tried to cast doubt on whether the virus started in China. Most experts believe it came from bats, possibly from southwest China or neighboring areas in Southeast Asia, before being passed on to another animal and then to humans.
The source search will try to determine where and exactly how it happened.
White House press secretary Zen Psaki expressed concern on Wednesday about what she called “disinformation” from China, adding that the United States supports a robust international investigation.
“It is critical that we get to the bottom of the early days of the pandemic in China,” she said.
Zhao replied that any negative speculation and politicized interpretation of the mission is inappropriate.
“We hope that the United States can work with the Chinese side responsibly, respect facts and science and respect the hard work of the international team of experts in tracking the origin of the virus,” he said, “so that they can conduct scientific research. research on virus scanning without any political interference. ”
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Associated Press photographer Ng Han Guan contributed to this report.