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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyes said the study did not adequately address laboratory theory before deciding that the pathogen likely spread from bats to humans through an intermediate animal. During a meeting with member states on Tuesday, he assured him that he was ready to undertake additional missions with the participation of special experts.
“Although the team concluded that releasing the virus from the laboratory was the least likely hypothesis, it needed further investigation,” TA Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The WHO chief repeatedly reiterates that all study directions are open, but comments made on Tuesday reflected for the first time his deliberations about the possibility of accidental spread of the virus from the laboratory.
The group of countries then issued a joint statement stating that the expert mission “lacked access to original and complete data and samples” and called for greater transparency and opportunity to respond to future outbreaks.
“We support transparent and independent analysis and assessment of the origins of COVID, free from interference and undue influence,” the statement read. “We sympathize with sharing concerns about a recent WHO-sponsored study in China.”
Tedrosas Adhanomas Ghebreyesusas
A four week trip
The initial mission report confirmed what the researchers released in mid-February after their four-week mission to Wuhan, central China, where the first COVID-19 cases occurred in late 2019, as well as their interviews. later.
The Donald Trump administration has criticized the WHO Director-General for being too humble with China at the start of the pandemic. Trump even started the process of withdrawing the United States from the WHO, which Joe Biden withdrew on the first day of his term. In some of his sharpest speeches to China, TA Ghebreyes expressed hope that data sharing will be more efficient and effective in future research.
The country categorically denied any indication of a virus leak from a high-level biosafety laboratory in Wuhan, a theory put forward by Robert Redfield, who led the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). the early years of the pandemic.
© Sipa / Scanpix
“Lower thresholds”
“Researchers must have full access to data, including biological samples, from at least the September 2019 period to determine reference cases,” said the WHO chief. “We have not yet identified the source of the virus and we must continue to rely on science and close the thresholds without leaving any opportunity untested.”
The mission was organized as a joint effort of WHO and China.
Peter Ben Embarek, one of the leaders of the trip, told a press conference that the laboratory hypothesis was not the main focus of the study, so this aspect did not receive as much attention and work as other theories, the team did not conduct a study comprehensive theory of the laboratory, he said.
Suspicions of a possible virus outbreak at the start of the Wuhan pandemic were a “logical subject speculated by all,” but the team has found no solid evidence or facts for such a hypothesis, Embarek said.
“It’s not impossible that that’s exactly what happened,” he said. – This is a dynamic process. Everything is possible.”
Peter Ben Embarek
Outside china
Mr. Embarek acknowledged that his team would also be interested in investigating a possible version of the rise of the virus beyond China’s borders and that they were “monitoring the facts.”
“Without a doubt, there was political pressure from all sides,” said Ben Embarek. – But we had no difficulty working in an open environment. We felt no pressure to remove essential elements from the report. “
Several countries signed a critical statement of the joint mission: the United States, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, South Korea, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.
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