China Refuses to Give WHO Raw Data on Early Covid-19 Cases
Officials withhold personalized information on patients that could help determine pandemic’s origins

Chinese authorities refused to provide World Health Organization investigators with raw, personalized data on early Covid-19 cases that could help them determine how and when the coronavirus first began to spread in China, according to WHO investigators who described heated exchanges over the lack of detail.

The Chinese authorities turned down requests to provide such data on 174 cases of Covid-19 that they have identified from the early phase of the outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. The investigators are part of a WHO team that this week completed a monthlong mission in China aimed at determining the origins of the pandemic.

Chinese officials and scientists provided their own extensive summaries and analysis of data on the cases, said the WHO team members. They also supplied aggregated data and analysis on retrospective searches through medical records in the months before the Wuhan outbreak was identified, saying that they had found no evidence of the virus.

But the WHO team wasn’t allowed to view the raw underlying data on those retrospective studies, which could allow them to conduct their own analysis on how early and how extensively the virus began to spread in China, the team members said. Member states typically provide such data—anonymized, but disaggregated so investigators can see all other relevant details on each case—as part of WHO investigations, said team members.

The Chinese state-owned cable channel is losing its access to the German market after British regulators pulled its license.
The Chinese cable channel CGTN no longer has permission to be broadcast in Germany, a press spokesperson for the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed to DW on Friday.
"We are currently informing cable providers that Ofcom has revoked this channel's UK license and that the program can therefore not be broadcast in Germany anymore," they said, referring to the decision made by the UK broadcasting regulator on February 4.  
According to an agreement among several European countries, CGTN's license in Germany had been approved by Ofcom as part of a license sharing initiative.
With the Ofcom license revoked, CGTN has been left without permission to broadcast in Germany.
Vodafone Germany also reported on Friday that it had ended distribution of the channel over its cable network in Nordrhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg, according to Reuters.
"We are currently in discussions regarding the withdrawal of the license both with regional media authorities and the broadcaster's representatives in order to clarify the legal situation," the company said.

Microbiologist Dominic Dwyer told Reuters, the Wall St Journal and the New York Times the team requested raw patient data from early cases, what he called "standard practice",

He said they only received a summary.

China has not responded to the allegation but has previously insisted it was transparent with the WHO.

The US has urged China to make available data from the earliest stages of the outbreak, saying it has "deep concerns" about the WHO report.

Last week, the WHO team concluded it was "extremely unlikely" that the coronavirus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan, dismissing a controversial theory that emerged last year.

Wuhan was the first place in the world where the virus was detected, in late 2019. Since then, more than 106 million cases and 2.3 million deaths have been reported worldwide.

Only half of the early cases had been exposed to the seafood market where the virus was initially detected.

"That's why we've persisted to ask for that," Prof Dwyer said. "Why that doesn't happen, I couldn't comment. Whether it's political or time or it's difficult... But whether there are any other reasons why the data isn't available, I don't know. One would only speculate."

Prof Dwyer said the restrictions on data would be mentioned in the WHO team's final report, which could be released as early as next week.

U.S. Expresses ‘Deep Concerns’ Over China Withholding Data From Pandemic Investigators
National security adviser says it is imperative World Health Organization report be free of China’s intervention

The Biden administration issued a formal statement criticizing China over refusing to provide World Health Organization pandemic investigators with data on early Covid-19 cases that could help explain how the virus spread.
 
“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,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement issued on Saturday. “It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government.”
 
“To better understand this pandemic and prepare for the next one, China must make available its data from the earliest days of the outbreak,” Mr. Sullivan said.

We DID build up a good relationsship in the Chinese/Int Epi-team! Allowing for heated arguments reflects a deep level of engagement in the room. Our quotes are intendedly twisted casting shadows over important scientific work.

U.S. Expresses ‘Deep Concerns’ Over China Withholding Data From Pandemic Investigators
National security adviser says it is imperative World Health Organization report be free of China’s intervention

The Biden administration issued a formal statement criticizing China over refusing to provide World Health Organization pandemic investigators with data on early Covid-19 cases that could help explain how the virus spread.
 
“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,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement issued on Saturday. “It is imperative that this report be independent, with expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government.”
 
“To better understand this pandemic and prepare for the next one, China must make available its data from the earliest days of the outbreak,” Mr. Sullivan said.

@SecBlinken US government account
 
Sending warm wishes to all those around the world who are celebrating Losar. May Tibet’s rich traditions symbolizing love, compassion, justice, forgiveness, tolerance, and peace live on in those who celebrate today, just as they have for centuries.

China responded with a statement from its Washington embassy on Sunday, saying the US had already gravely damaged international cooperation on Covid-19 and was now “pointing fingers at other countries who have been faithfully supporting the WHO and at the WHO itself”.
 
While it welcomed President Joe Biden’s decision to reverse the Trump administration’s move to leave the WHO, the statement said China hoped the US would “hold itself to the highest standards, take a serious, earnest, transparent and responsible attitude, shoulder its rightful responsibility, support the WHO’s work with real actions and make due contribution to the international cooperation on Covid-19”.

The primary reason, Chao says, is four years of the Trump Administration’s “political bashing” of Chinese companies.
 
“You’ve had this heightened adversarial relationship between the U.S. and China,” said Chao, whose 25-year-old firm backs start-ups in the U.S., China and Japan. Between Trump’s pounding of Huawei and promise to delist some Chinese firms, “that really made Chinese companies rethink about going public in the U.S.,” Chao said.