Failures of State: The origins of Covid-19 (Pt 3)
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2021
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the final part of our Failures of State series, the Sunday Times Insight team take David Aaronovitch on a hunt for answers.
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Guests:
- Jonathan Calvert, Insight Editor, The Sunday Times.
- George Arbuthnott, Deputy Insight Editor, The Sunday Times.
Host: David Aaronovitch.
Links:
- Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott.
- Audiobook of Failures of State.
- 'Revealed: Seven year coronavirus trail from mine deaths to a Wuhan lab', The Sunday Times.
Clips used: BBC, CNA, PBS, CBC, AP, South China Morning Post, Al Jazeera, NBC, France 24, Chatham House, WION, 'Contagion' (2011) / Warner Bros, 'The Whistleblowers' (2007) / Carnival Films.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One day, not too far off, they'll be an inquiry into the UK's handling of the pandemic. |
| 0:12.7 | But another less local inquiry is already underway. |
| 0:16.6 | A team of 13 scientists led by the World Health Organization has arrived in a Chinese city |
| 0:21.6 | in Wuhan. |
| 0:22.6 | They're tasked to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 virus. |
| 0:27.0 | The world wants to know, where did this terrible thing come from? |
| 0:31.6 | And once we find it, can we please break up the back care to stop it from getting out again? |
| 0:36.0 | Beijing's been reluctant to agree to an independent inquiry and it's taken many months of negotiation |
| 0:41.5 | for this access to be allowed. |
| 0:43.7 | Next week, the World Health Organization will release the full report from its COVID-19 |
| 0:48.6 | fact-finding trip to China. |
| 0:50.6 | But the omens for a full investigation are not promising. |
| 0:54.2 | When we approach the Wuhan lab, they didn't answer our questions. |
| 0:56.9 | It's like it's a detective movie. |
| 0:59.1 | You're listening to stories of our times and the times and the Sunday times. |
| 1:02.1 | I'm David Aronovich. |
| 1:03.6 | Today, failures of state, part three, the origins of COVID-19. |
| 1:09.6 | Early this week, Manveen spoke to the Sunday Times Insight team about what went wrong |
| 1:17.3 | in the UK. |
| 1:19.0 | What happens next? |
| 1:20.6 | We need to learn from our mistakes, which were many, because I think we will accept that |
| 1:24.8 | this might happen again sometime in the future. |
... |
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