ExclusiveWuhan lab and web of Chinese red tape that delayed US scientists getting access to coronavirus

Emails show that scientists at the Galveston National Laboratory repeatedly urged their counterparts to share the virus in early 2020 to speed up vital research

Despite a warning that China ‘would face heavy criticism’ if the process stalled, the Americans hit a bureaucratic wall

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Published: 12:00pm, 27 Sep 2021Updated: 8:55pm, 27 Sep 2021

In late January 2020, as a new virus infected hundreds of people each day in the Chinese city of Wuhan, scientists at the Galveston National Laboratory in Texas urgently sought access to the pathogen to start their own research.

They turned to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), whose scientists they had helped to train, hoping they could execute a swift “material transfer agreement” to get the coronavirus to their labs.

The US government-affiliated lab would wait days as a WIV scientist overseeing the transfer reported little progress in a process that appeared stymied by a need for Chinese government approval, emails obtained by a freedom of information request to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) show.

The exchange highlights challenges in international pathogen sharing and points to China’s reluctance to share these materials in the critical early days of the pandemic, experts briefed on the documents said. For the researchers in Texas, it meant lost time.