The head of the World Health Organization admitted that it is too early to rule out the potential link between the two. COVID-19 pandemic As well as laboratory leaks, he said on Thursday that he asked China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origin of the coronavirus.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adnorm Gebrejesus has rarely deviated from his usual respect for powerful member states. He said that for the international team that went to China to investigate the source of COVID-19 earlier this year That said, obtaining raw data has always been a challenge. The first human case was found in Wuhan, China.
Tan Desai told reporters that the UN health agency headquartered in Geneva “is actually asking China to be transparent, open and cooperative, especially with regard to the information and raw data we requested in the early stages of the pandemic.”
He said that some people “prematurely” ruled out the theory that the virus may have leaked from the Chinese government’s Wuhan laboratory, which weakened the WHO’s own report in March, which concluded that laboratory leaks were “extremely non-existent”. may”.
“I am a laboratory technician myself, I am an immunologist, I have worked in the laboratory, and laboratory accidents have occurred from time to time,” Tedros said. “It’s very common.”
In recent months, the idea that the epidemic started in a laboratory in some way—perhaps involving an engineered virus—has been receiving increasing attention, especially since President Joe Biden ordered a review of U.S. intelligence in May. To assess the possibility of the situation.
China actively fought back, arguing that attempts to link the origin of COVID-19 to the laboratory were politically motivated and suggesting that the virus may have originated abroad. At the annual meeting of the WHO Minister of Health in the spring, China stated that it should continue to search for the origin of COVID-19 in other countries in the future.
Most scientists suspect that the coronavirus originated in bats, but the exact way it first entered humans-through intermediate animals or other means-has not yet been determined. It usually takes decades to shrink the natural sources of animal viruses such as Ebola or SARS.
Tedros said, “Checking what happened, especially what happened in our laboratory, is important to determine whether the pandemic has any connection with the laboratory.”
The head of the WHO said: “We need information about the laboratory’s conditions before and at the beginning of the pandemic, direct information.” He added that China’s cooperation is crucial. “If we get complete information, we can exclude (lab connection).”
Throughout the pandemic, although senior WHO officials complained internally about the confusion of their Chinese counterparts, Tan Desai has repeatedly praised China’s speed and transparency.
Last year, the Associated Press found that the WHO was frustrated by the lack of details from China in the early stages of the spread of the coronavirus, indicating that China is suppressing the hidden pursuit of the origin of the pandemic.
Experts believe that the World Health Organization is not capable of exploring the origin of COVID-19
Many public health experts also called for an independent inspection of the origin of COVID-19, arguing that the WHO has no political influence to conduct such forensic analysis, and that the UN agency failed to get from China more than a year later.
Any visit to China led by the World Health Organization also requires the government to approve all experts going to the country, as well as permission to visit the site and final approval of any travel reports. Dr. Michael Ryan, the head of WHO’s emergency situation, has previously stated that the agency operates by consensus and cannot force countries to cooperate.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn responded to Tedros’ call for transparency, urging Chinese officials to allow investigations into the origin of the virus to continue.
“We are very grateful for the Chinese government’s cooperation in the first mission so far,” Spann said. “But it’s not enough.”
——Zheng reports from London.
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