After American suspicions of a Chinese lab leak and heated denials from Beijing, the WHO requested all countries on Friday to divulge everything they know about the origins of Covid-19.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has determined that the Covid-19 pandemic’s origins is “most likely a probable lab mishap in Wuhan,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, who stated this on Fox News Channel on Tuesday.
The city in China that houses a virus research centre saw the first cases of the novel coronavirus illnesses in late 2019.
China’s government has vehemently refuted the FBI’s assertion, calling it a smear effort against Beijing.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, stated that sharing information with WHO and the international scientific community concerning the pandemic’s origins is crucial.
In order to better avoid, plan for, and respond to future epidemics and pandemics, we must better understand how this pandemic began, not in order to assign blame.
He informed reporters, “WHO has not abandoned any plans to establish the roots of the Covid-19 outbreak.
WHO calls for transparency
The Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of New Pathogens (SAGO) was established by the UN’s health agency in 2021 to investigate the pandemic’s origins.
Tedros added that he has written and spoken to top Chinese leaders numerous times. “WHO continues to push for China to be transparent in sharing data and to perform the appropriate investigations and reveal the outcomes,” he said.
Any theories regarding the virus’s origins are still up to discussion up until that point.
But, he said that the politicisation of the origins research was making the scientific work more difficult and, as a result, making the world less safe.
The remarks from FBI Director Christopher Wray followed news earlier this week that the US Department of Energy had concluded that the Covid-19 outbreak was most likely the result of a lab breach in China.
The department collaborates with a network of national laboratories, some of which are engaged in cutting-edge biological study. Several American intelligence services hold the view that the virus organically developed.
WHO says to share the data.
The WHO has contacted the US mission in Geneva for more information, according to Maria Van Kerkhove, the Covid-19 technical lead for the organisation.
Nevertheless, according to Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist who specialises in infectious diseases, they have not yet had access to the data that formed the basis of the American studies.
To advance the scientific investigations, she continued, “It is still crucial that knowledge is shared”.
For the sake of the millions of people who died from Covid-19 and those who are still suffering from long-term Covid, according to Tedros, it is morally necessary to ascertain how the epidemic began.
The WHO has received reports of more than 6.8 million Covid-19 deaths and more than 758 million verified cases, but admits that the actual toll is much higher.
ALSO READ: Canada extends temporary policy by two years, visitors can apply for work permits; check eligibility
