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The The World Health Organization (WHO) has once again settled the versions that indicate that the Covid-19-causing coronavirus originated in a laboratory in China by confirming that this pathogen “is of animal origin”, contrary to what the United States Government has been saying for days.
“The coronavirus circulates ancestrally among bats, it is something we know based on the genetic sequence of this virus. What we need to understand is which has been the animal that acted as an intermediary, that is, it was infected by bats and transmitted it to humans “, said today the head of the Department of Emerging Diseases of the WHO, Maria Van Kerkhove.
United States President Donald Trump has publicly said that the SARS CoV-2 coronavirus (the cause of the Covid-19 disease) originated in a laboratory in Wuhan (the place of the first epidemic outbreak), which this Sunday reaffirmed its Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who added that the government has “an enormous amount of evidence “of it.
“From all the evidence we’ve seen of all the genetic sequences that are available, and I think there are over 15,000, this virus has a natural origin“Van Kerkhove said at a virtual press conference.
The WHO Executive Director for Health Emergencies, Mike Ryan, He stressed that the US has not shared with the organization the “enormous evidence” that it claims to have: “From our perspective this is speculative and like any evidence-based organization, we would very much like to receive any information regarding the origin of the virus,” he added.
The doctor insisted that as long as the US does not share this supposed information, “we focus on what we know, on the evidence we have and that indicates that the virus is of animal origin.”
In another excerpt from the press conference, senior officials in the fight to contain the pandemic said the WHO has made available a guide for governments to assess the risks posed by mass meetings now that several countries, especially in Europe, are gradually beginning to lower social quarantine measures.
Van Kerkhove argued that in order to make an official decision in this regard, several criteria will have to be considered, such as the number of people who will meet, the planned location, and assess whether the meeting cannot be held virtually or postponed.
A general decision is discouraged, but rather reflect on the risks case by case and depending on whether or not the virus is circulating in the area.
“We cannot tell each country what to do in each context, but if there are meetings you have to consider if you can keep the distance between people and the hygiene measures that will be available, “added Ryan.
At times when coronavirus cases have exceeded 3.4 million worldwide, Rapid diagnostic tests have come to many countries through commercial channels to be sold in pharmacies freely and so that people can make the diagnosis themselves at home.
On the reliability of those tests and the danger of false negatives, Van Kerkhove said that there are “hundreds” of types of tests for the coronavirus that are being sold in the world and that obviously “exist associated risks to tests that are sold in every corner “.
He stressed that “The most important thing is that it has been verified that the tests that are sold really work well”, a guarantee that can only be given by the validation of the health authorities: “It is necessary to ensure that the result is true since the risk is that there are false positives or, worse, false negatives, which means that one can be infected (and for therefore infect others) even though the test says it is not, “he said.
