The stance marks a sharp reversal of the UN health agency’s initial assessment of the pandemic’s origins.
The stance marks a sharp reversal of the UN health agency’s initial assessment of the pandemic’s origins.
Two years after the coronavirus was first detected in China, and after the pandemic counted at least 6.3 million deaths worldwide, the World Health Organization is recommending in its strongest terms that a more thorough investigation is needed. whether the laboratory accident may occur. be to blame.
The stance marks a sharp reversal of the UN health agency’s initial assessment of the pandemic’s origins, and comes after several critics accused the WHO of being too quick to dismiss or downplay a laboratory-leak theory. Which puts Chinese officials on the defensive.
The WHO concluded last year that it was “extremely unlikely” that COVID-19 could have spread to humans from a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. Many scientists suspect that the coronavirus jumped from bats to people, possibly through another animal.
Yet in a report released on Thursday, the WHO expert group said “key pieces of data” to explain how the pandemic began were still missing. The scientists said the group will “be open to any and all scientific evidence that becomes available in the future to allow for comprehensive testing of all pertinent hypotheses.” It usually takes years to identify the source of a disease in animals. It took scientists more than a decade to locate the bat species that were natural reservoirs for SARS, a relative of COVID-19.
The WHO expert group also noted that since laboratory accidents have triggered some outbreaks in the past, the highly politicized theory cannot be discounted.
Jean-Claude Manuguera, co-chair of the 27-member international advisory group, acknowledged that some scientists may be “allergic” to the idea of examining the laboratory leak theory, but added that they need to be “open-minded” to it. check.
The report could revive allegations that the WHO was initially accepting the Chinese government’s explanation for the outbreak, which eventually killed millions, sickened millions, forced dozens of countries into lockdown and affected the world economy.
WHO’s expert group said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had sent two letters to senior Chinese government officials in February, requesting information, including details of early human cases of COVID-19 in the city of Wuhan . It is not clear whether China responded.
Experts said that no study was provided to WHO that assessed the possibility of COVID-19 resulting from a laboratory leak. He said his understanding of how the coronavirus emerged was limited by several factors, including that not all research presented by Chinese scientists has been published.
Jamie Metzl, who sits in an unrelated WHO advisory group, has suggested that the Group of Seven industrialized nations set up their own COVID origins investigation, adding that the WHO has no resources to conduct such a critical assessment. It lacks political authority, expertise and independence.
Metzl welcomed the WHO’s call for further investigation into the potential for a laboratory leak, but said it was insufficient.
“Sadly, the Chinese government is still refusing to share the raw data needed and will not allow the necessary, full audit of Wuhan laboratories,” he said. “Having access to this information is critical to understanding how this pandemic began and how to prevent future pandemics.” WHO expert scientists said a range of research methods were needed, including studies evaluating the role of wild animals and environmental studies in places where the virus may have spread first, such as the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.
In March 2021, the WHO released a report about the origins of COVID-19 after a highly choreographed trip to China by international scientists. The report concluded that the disease most likely jumped from bats to humans and that there was no evidence to suggest there was a laboratory link.
Yet after much criticism, including some scientists on WHO’s team, the agency’s director acknowledged that it was “premature” to rule out a laboratory leak and said he called on China to be more transparent in sharing information. .
In its new report, the WHO said experts had been given access to data that included unpublished blood samples from more than 40,000 people in Wuhan in 2019. The samples were tested for COVID-19 antibodies. None were found, suggesting that the virus was not spreading widely before it was first identified in late December of that year.
WHO experts called for several studies to be conducted, including testing wild animals to find out which species can host COVID-19. He also said that the “cold chain” supply theory needs to be examined. China has previously pushed the idea that traces of COVID-19 on frozen packaging were causing the outbreak, rather than any domestic source, a theory widely panned by outside scientists.
To test whether COVID-19 may have been the result of a laboratory accident, WHO experts said interviews should be conducted “with staff in laboratories tasked with the management and implementation of biosafety and biosafety”. China has suggested that COVID-19 began in a laboratory “unfounded” and believed the virus originated in US facilities also known to conduct research on coronaviruses in animals. The Chinese government has said it supports the discovery of the origin of the pandemic, but other countries should focus.
In a footnote to the report, the WHO’s group noted that three of its own experts – scientists from China, Brazil and Russia – disagreed with calls for an investigation into the possibility of the spread of COVID-19 from a laboratory accident.