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GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP): The World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated on Friday (May 1) that the new coronavirus was of natural origin after United States President Donald Trump claimed it had seen evidence that it originated in a Chinese laboratory.
Scientists believe the killer virus leaped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan that sells exotic animals for meat.
Trump claimed Thursday (April 30) that he had seen evidence that the Wuhan Virology Institute was actually the source of the outbreak, although he declined to give details.
When asked about Trump’s claim during a virtual press conference, the WHO’s emergency chief, Michael Ryan, emphasized that the UN health agency had “listened over and over to numerous scientists who have examined the sequences “of the virus.
“We are confident that this virus is of natural origin,” he said, reiterating a stance that the UN agency has previously expressed.
The WHO said earlier on Friday that it wanted to be invited to participate in Chinese research into the origins of the animal pandemic, which in a matter of months has killed more than 230,000 people worldwide.
“The important thing is that we establish what that natural host is for this virus,” Ryan said, stressing the need to understand “how the barrier of animal-human species was broken.”
“And the purpose of understanding is that we can implement the necessary prevention and public health measures to prevent that from happening again anywhere,” he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, continued on Friday to reject criticism of his organization, in particular by Trump, who suspended funds from Washington after accusing the UN agency of minimizing the severity of the sprout and kneel before China.
WHO ‘wasted no time’
Tedros said the WHO had issued the highest level of alert by declaring that the Covid-19 outbreak constituted a “public health emergency of international concern” on January 30, when there were no deaths and only 82 cases registered outside of China. .
“We wasted no time,” he said at the briefing on Friday. “The world had enough time to intervene.”
His comments came after the WHO emergency committee met for the first time since he made his statement three months ago.
“Of course, the pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern,” said Tedros after receiving the recommendations of the committee, made up of 19 independent experts.
While maintaining the global alert level, the experts made a series of general recommendations on how WHO and countries should adjust their response to the pandemic.
He called for, among other things, extensive cooperation to “identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population.”
He also called on WHO to “update the recommendations on appropriate travel measures” related to the outbreak, and to consider “the balance between benefits and unintended consequences”, such as the difficulties of transporting humanitarian aid when there are so many flights on the ground . – AFP
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