China rejects WHO criticism of alleged data withholding on Covid-19 origin, calling on the organization to remain impartial and not become a political tool. According to Shen Hongbing, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China has not withheld any data on Covid-19 cases, samples, or testing results and has shared all materials gathered on the virus’s origin during the joint mission with WHO experts in 2020 and early 2021.
Shen’s comments follow criticism by WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, Maria D. Van Kerkhove, who called the lack of access to raw data on early cases in China “inexcusable”. While a group of international scientists found evidence in data on specimens collected three years ago at the market in Wuhan to back the theory that the virus could have jumped from animals to humans there, Chinese officials maintain there is not enough evidence to conclude the virus originated at the Wuhan market.