WHO team visits China hospital that treated first COVID-19 patients
29 January 2021
A World Health Organization team of researchers on Friday visited a hospital in Wuhan where China says some of the first coronavirus patients were treated, AP reports.
Why it matters: Friday marks the first in-person day in the team's investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, almost a year since the first cases were reported.
- The WHO team spent two weeks in quarantine since their arrival in China on Jan. 14. They will spend an additional two weeks in the country, according to Reuters.
The big picture: The team had their first face-to-face meeting on Friday with Chinese scientists at the Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine.
- China state media disclosed that the hospital was the first to report coronavirus cases, "after treating an elderly couple in late 2019 whose CT scans showed differences from typical pneumonia," Reuters writes.
What's next: The team requested some "detailed underlying data" from Chinese scientists and is expected to meet with early responders and some of the first coronavirus patients.
Worth noting: "Confirmation of the origins of the virus is likely to take years. Pinning down an outbreak’s animal reservoir typically requires exhaustive research including taking animal samples, genetic analysis and epidemiological studies," AP writes.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.