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Coronavirus pandemic

'Blame China game': Russian WHO expert calls against politicizing COVID-19 pandemic

According to the pundit, Beijing is just as interested in ascertaining the causes of the disease as the WHO

WHO experts arrive in Wuhan AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

WHO experts arrive in Wuhan

© AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

BEIJING, February 1. /TASS/. China is just as interested in finding out the source of the novel coronavirus as the experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) sent to Wuhan, Vladimir Dedkov, deputy research director at the St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute and member of the WHO’s mission to China, told TASS. He cautioned against politicizing the pandemic and shifting the blame onto China.

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"There is no problem from the side of China. They are just as interested, we are working together," he said. "Let’s not consider our visit as that by a group of some investigators that are trying to implicate someone in something. As if China were initially to blame and were trying to make excuses. This is not true. We are working together," he added.

According to Dedkov, China "is just as interested in finding out the reasons as the WHO." According to him, Chinese representatives are cooperating as much as possible in order to ensure that the WHO’s mission brings results.

"We are not working to accuse China of anything, to implicate China," the expert continued. "This is not a situation when we came and they are trying to hide something from us," he stressed, reiterating that they are working in close contact together.

Dedkov noted that WHO experts often face issues related to the politicization of the pandemic. He added that in reality, the pandemic could have begun due to a number of reasons. "There are very many options here. They all must be studied before we make some definitive conclusion on the causes of the epidemic," he concluded.

WHO experts arrived in Wuhan to study the origins of the novel coronavirus on January 14, 2021. After they arrived, they were placed on a two-week quarantine, during which they held video calls with their Chinese colleagues.

Earlier, the WHO stated repeatedly that the search for a source of the novel coronavirus should start with the Chinese city of Wuhan. In the summer of 2020, two experts visited China in order to arrange for the main mission. As a result of the trip, WHO and Chinese experts drafted a document on the research and the program of activity of the international group led by the WHO.

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