The United States damaged multilateral cooperation and the World Health Organization (WHO) in recent years, and should not be “pointing fingers” at China and other countries that supported the WHO during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese embassy said on Saturday, February 13.

A spokesperson for the embassy, responding to a statement from US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, said China welcomed Washington’s decision to reengage with the WHO, but it should hold itself to the “highest standards” instead of taking aim at other countries.

Sullivan on Saturday called on China to make available data from the earliest days of the COVID-19 outbreak, citing “deep concerns” about the way the findings of the WHO’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19 were communicated.

“Re-engaging the WHO also means holding it to the highest standards,” Sullivan said. “We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them.”

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed WHO investigators, reported on Friday, February 12, that China had refused to give the WHO raw, personalized data on its early COVID-19 cases that could help determine how and when the virus first spread in China.

“It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government,” Sullivan said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday said all hypotheses are still open about the origins of COVID-19, after Washington said it wanted to review data from a WHO-led mission to China, where the virus first emerged.

A WHO-led mission, which spent 4 weeks in China looking into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak, said this week that it was not looking further into the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab, which it considered highly unlikely. – Rappler.com