It may be 'last chance' to find COVID origins- WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) says a new taskforce may
be the last chance to find the origins of Covid-19.
It has nominated 26 experts to join the body, the Scientific
Advisory Group on the Origins of Novel Pathogens (Sago).
More than a year-and-a-half since the virus was detected in
the Chinese city of Wuhan, the question of how it first emerged remains
unclear.
The team will consider if the virus jumped from animals to
humans in Wuhan markets or leaked in a lab accident.
China has strongly refuted the second theory.
In February, a WHO team tasked with investigating Covid's
origins flew to China and concluded that the virus had probably come from bats
but that more work was needed.
But the WHO's director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, later said the investigation had been hampered by a lack of data
and transparency from China.
The proposed members of the Sago group include six experts
who visited China as part of the previous team.
Aside from coronavirus, Sago will also look into the origins
of other high-risk pathogens.
"Understanding where new pathogens come from is essential
for preventing future outbreaks," said Dr Tedros said.
In a joint editorial in the journal Science, Dr Tedros and
other WHO officials said "a lab accident cannot be ruled out".
Why the lab-leak theory is being taken seriously
Michael Ryan, the WHO's emergencies director, said Sago's
work may be the "last chance to understand the origins of this
virus".
The announcement of the new group comes as CNN reported that
China was preparing to test tens of thousands of blood bank samples taken in
the early months of the pandemic.
But Chen Xu, China's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said
Sago's work should not be "politicised".
"It is time to send teams to other places," he
said.
Source BBC: Heading and header image changed by bp
No comments