GENEVA, Oct. 14 (BNA) – The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that its newly formed advisory group on dangerous pathogens may be our “last chance” to determine the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and urged China to provide data from an early date. cases.
The first human cases of COVID-19 were reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. China has repeatedly rejected theories that the virus had leaked from one of its laboratories and said no more visits were needed, Reuters reported.
A WHO-led team spent four weeks in and around Wuhan earlier this year with Chinese scientists, and said in a joint report in March that the virus may have passed from bats to humans through another animal, but more research is needed.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the investigation was hampered by a dearth of preliminary data on the early days of the outbreak and called for lab audits.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday named the 26 proposed members of the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of New Pathogens (SAGO). They include Marion Copmans, Tia Fisher, Hong Nguyen and Chinese animal health expert Yang Yonghui, who was involved in the joint investigation in Wuhan.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Technical Chief on COVID-19, expressed the hope that there would be more international missions led by WHO to China that would engage the country’s cooperation.
She told a news conference that “more than thirty recommended studies” still needed to be done to determine how the virus was transmitted from animal species to humans.
Van Kerkhove said reported Chinese tests for antibodies in Wuhan residents in 2019 would be “very crucial” to understanding the origins of the virus.
Detailed investigations of known and suspected early cases in China before December 2019, including analyzes of blood samples stored from 2019 in Wuhan and retrospective searches of hospital data, said WHO, in an editorial in Science, said and earlier deaths. cases.
She added that the focus should be on laboratories in the area where the first reports of human casualties appeared in Wuhan, as the exclusion of an accident requires sufficient evidence.
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s chief emergencies expert, said the new commission could be the last chance to determine the origin of SARS-CoV-2, “the virus that stopped our entire world.”
He said the WHO was seeking “to step back, and create an environment in which we can revisit scientific issues.” “This is our best chance, and it may be our last chance to understand the origins of this virus.”
Chen Shu, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said at a separate press conference that the results of the joint study were “absolutely clear”, adding that since international teams have been sent to China twice already, it is time to send teams to another. Places.”
“I think if we’re going to continue with scientific research, I think it should be a joint effort based on science, not intelligence agencies,” Chen said. “So if we’re going to talk about anything, we’re doing the business entirely within the SAGO framework.”
MI