WHO Expert ‘Had Concerns’ About Lab Close to 1st COVID-19 Cases

WHO Expert ‘Had Concerns’ About Lab Close to 1st COVID-19 Cases
Peter Ben Embarek, of a World Health Organization team, speaks to journalists as he arrives at the airport at the end of a WHO mission to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan in China's Hubei province on Feb 10, 2021. Ng Han Guan, File/AP Photo
The Associated Press
Updated:

LONDON—When a World Health Organization-led (WHO) team traveled to China earlier this year to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, a top official said he was worried about safety standards at a laboratory close to the seafood market where the first human cases were detected, according to a documentary released Aug 12 by Danish television channel TV2.

The Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was handling coronaviruses “without potentially having the same level of expertise or safety or who knows,” Peter Ben Embarek said during a conference call in January, according to footage shown by TV2. Ben Embarek is a WHO expert on disease transmission from animals to humans and was one of the team’s leaders