China initially apparently tried to keep any mention of a possible laboratory accident as the cause of the corona pandemic out of a joint report with the World Health Organization (WHO). The head of the former WHO mission in Wuhan, Peter Ben Embarek, told Danish documentary filmmakers that the question was still being wrestled two days before the end of the delegation's trip in February this year. The Chinese side finally agreed to the mention "on the condition" that we do not recommend any further research into this hypothesis, "said Embarek in a TV2 documentary broadcast on Thursday evening. In the joint final report of the mission, which was composed equally of WHO experts and Chinese experts,a laboratory accident is classified as "extremely unlikely". Further research is explicitly not recommended. Few pages of the report deal with this issue.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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Embarek had already spoken in an interview with Science magazine in February that during his stay in Wuhan “there was always politics on the other side of the table”.

During the talks, between 30 and 60 Chinese people sat across from them, most of whom were not scientists.

"We know that the group of scientists was under observation from other sectors."

The Director General of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had already spoken out in March for further research into the possible role of laboratories in Wuhan and confirmed this in July. China has categorically refused any further cooperation on this issue. The discussion about the laboratory hypothesis has so far focused on the Wuhan Institute for Virology, which operates a laboratory with biosafety level four in the central Chinese city. In the film, however, the Danish zoonosis expert Embarek also spoke about the laboratory of the local disease protection authority in Wuhan, which was rumored about at the very beginning of the pandemic. The reason for this is that it is only a few hundred meters from the Huanan food market, which is associated with many of the first known corona cases. "It is interesting,that the laboratory moved on December 2nd, 2019. This is the time when it all began, "said Embarek in the interview that, according to the WHO, was held months ago. The mission's final report states that the relocation of the laboratory did not lead to any disruptions or irregularities.