More scoops from @WSJ: @WHO experts who conducted the probe of #COVID19 origin in #China said #Beijing has refused to provide them with raw data on early cases that could help them determine how and when the coronavirus first began to spread in China. https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-refuses-to-give-who-raw-data-on-early-covid-19-cases-11613150580?st=nrd7lw2pybs1ye2&reflink=article_copyURL_share

"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. "

"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."

“They showed us a couple of examples, but that’s not the same as doing all of them, which is standard epidemiological investigation,” said Dominic Dwyer, an Australian microbiologist on the WHO team.

“So then, you know, the interpretation of that data becomes more limited from our point of view, although the other side might see it as being quite good.”

"China’s reluctance to provide the data adds to concerns among many foreign governments and scientists about a lack of transparency in China’s approach to the hunt for the pandemic’s origins. The U.S. State Department said this week it wants to see data underlying the WHO probe."

"The refusal of the Chinese authorities to provide raw, personalized data on the 174 early Covid-19 cases, and on potential earlier cases such as pneumonia patients in the months before December 2019, led to heated discussions...

... between the WHO team and their Chinese counterparts during the mission, said Dr. Dwyer."

“Sometimes emotions have run really high,” Thea Fischer, a Danish epidemiologist among the WHO investigators, said on Tuesday. “I am a scientist and I trust data. I trust documented evidence based on data, I don’t just trust what anyone tells me.”

"Dr. Fischer said she had seen no inconsistencies in the data that were made available in Wuhan but couldn’t undertake a deeper analysis without seeing the raw data. The provision of such data would be the case in most other countries, she said."

"Marion Koopmans, a Dutch virologist who was also part of the team, said that the team’s Chinese counterparts had done extensive work involving hundreds of investigators from several institutes.

The team, she said, had limited time and could attempt to obtain such information later."

“In these instances what you try to do is you make the assumption that everybody is operating in good faith,” said Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University who wasn’t part of the WHO team.

“You don’t want to close future access to information that might be critical.”