NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - For months, China resisted allowing World Health Organisation experts into the country to trace the origins of the global pandemic, concerned that such an inquiry could draw attention to the government's early missteps in handling the outbreak.

After a global uproar, the Chinese government finally relented, allowing a team of 14 scientists to visit laboratories, disease-control centres and live-animal markets over the past 12 days in the city of Wuhan.