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“Regarding the origin of the virus in Wuhan, we have listened to numerous scientists who studied the virus, and assured us that the virus is of natural origin,” said WHO Director of Emergency Programs Michael Ryan, being asked by a journalist during a virtual press conference.
“What matters is that we find out the natural host of the virus,” he added from the organization’s headquarters in Geneva. He also explained that the “main objective is to make us understand the virus well, to understand the transmission from animal to human, and to understand how the barrier between animal and human species is crossed.”
The study aims to “put in place public health and preventive measures to prevent this from happening again, wherever it may be,” insisted the person in charge.
The WHO, which has so far praised Beijing’s management of the crisis, on Friday urged Chinese authorities to invite it to participate in “ongoing or planned” investigations into the animal origins of the virus.
And while the United States accuses the WHO of having taken too long to alert the epidemic so as not to irritate Beijing, the director of the organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, defended his action again on Friday.
The WHO director stressed that he himself traveled to China on January 28 to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and prepare for the visit of an international team of scientists to Wuhan.
“I remember that people advised us not to travel to China because it was not known how the virus worked,” he said, indicating that he was not “afraid” to go.
On January 30, the WHO decreed the global health emergency, something it had refused to do a week earlier.
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