China Still Hasn’t Accepted Offer for US Scientists to Help Study Coronavirus: CDC | 2020-02-03 13:29:40 (Visits: 791 Times) |  | | images 1? Secretary Alex Azar told reporters last week that the United States offered to send a team of health experts to China amid the coronavirus outbreak but China had rejected the offer.Health Secretary Alex Azar told reporters last week that the United States offered to send a team of health experts to China amid the coronavirus outbreak but China had rejected the offer.
photo2 Staff members wearing protective masks check a passenger at Shanghai railway station in Shanghai, China, as the country is hit by an outbreak of a new coronavirus on Feb. 2, 2020. (Aly Song/Reuters)
BY ZACHARY STIEBER February 3, 2020 Updated: February 3, 2020
The Chinese Communist Party is still refusing to allow American experts into the country to help study and respond to the new coronavirus outbreak, a top American health official said on Monday.
“We have folks ready to go to China as soon as that offer is finalized. I understand that there still are negotiations in process on that. And really we’re waiting. As soon as we are allowed to go we will be there,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a phone call.
A single expert who was already in China as part of the agency’s continuing work with the country is in the field.
“We do have an expert already in the field as part of the CDC’s continuing work with China,” Messonnier said. In terms of the offer to China to send more experts, she added, “We are still waiting for that invitation and I don’t have anything more to say on that.”
Health Secretary Alex Azar told reporters last week that the United States offered to send a team of health experts to China amid the coronavirus outbreak but China had rejected the offer.
“We do hope that the Chinese government will take us up” on the offer, Azar said. “CDC experts are standing by, ready to go to China.” |
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