US Offer To Send Scientists To Help China Fight The Coronavirus Was Refused Three Times Before Finally Permitting International Experts To Come In

Daily Mail: China turned away US offer to send scientists to help fight coronavirus THREE times - before finally allowing international experts to come to its aid

* US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar revealed at a Tuesday press conference that the US had made two direct and one indirect offer to help China
* He urged China to be more 'transparent and cooperative'
* It and other nations wanted to send scientists to help address the coronavirus
* The outbreak that began last month in Wuhan has killed more than 130 in China and sickened more than 5,500 people worldwide
* China has been praised for quickly sharing the virus's genome sequence and for being more transparent than during the SARS outbreak of 2003
* But its reticence to allow outside scientists in has drawn suspicion
* An hour later during the same Tuesday press conference, the WHO announced that China had agreed to allow foreign scientists in

Amid its outbreak of coronavirus that has killed over 100 people and sickened more than 4,500, China refused two direct offers from the US to send infectious disease experts to help fight the virus's spread, and a third made via the World Health Organization.

It was only as US Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Alex Azar was disclosing this information to reporters in a Tuesday press conference the China at last acquiesced, telling the WHO it would welcome foreign assistance.

Although the global public health community has widely praised China's quick - if 'Draconian' - work to address the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, the Communist Party run nation is haunted by its secretive handling of past outbreaks.

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