a team of 10 international scientists is
to travel to the chinese city of wuhan
next month
to investigate the origins of covet 19.
that's according to the world health
organization
beijing's been reluctant to agree to an
independent inquiry and it's taken many
months of negotiation
for this access to be allowed our china
correspondent robin branch has more
it's taken almost exactly a year so long
in fact that wuhan
the city where the outbreak began is
back to normal
people aren't packed indoors hiding from
the virus they're now packed in clubs
celebrating their freedom but after
months of negotiation
china has said yes so a team of 10
international investigators will come
here
in a matter of weeks and start looking
for answers
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the city of 10 million where numerous
cases were first reported
will be a significant part of their
focus
was this now infamous market the place
where it crossed over into humans
where and what did the virus actually
come from
key questions to try to prevent it
happening again
for some though it's a blame game that's
already over
china's secrecy deceptions and cover-up
allowed it to spread all over the world
china's already secured a significant
agreement from the who
this is not a china-only investigation
at the insistence of beijing this is a
global investigation
and it's starting in china the who has
tried before to do what china's
president xi jinping did back in march
and go to the streets of wuhan an
initial team came in july but they
didn't make it beyond quarantine in
beijing
the full 10 person team hopes to gather
samples here
an interview some of the first known
people infected
much though will depend on working with
their chinese counterparts
i think it will be very important for
the chinese government to have
transparency
so the scientists can look at everything
so
i think it'll be important for everybody
to have
open transparent communication the uk's
ambassador to china has spoken about her
government's desire to see a
shared understanding of the origins of
this virus
grounded in science but at the same time
i've heard from very senior foreign
diplomatic voices who express
a deep pessimism about an investigation
that they fear will be
tarnished from the very outset by
political interference
from beijing the signs from china's
state media are not
encouraging they are reporting heavily
contested claims of covid
in other countries before it was here in
china
one prominent senior reporter just today
is stating as
fact that there were cases in spain in
march of 2019
it's all part of an ongoing effort to
cast doubt on the overwhelmingly
supported conclusion
that it started in humans here in china
robin brandt's bbc news shanghai