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Health Minister Bent Høie declares in a statement to Dagbladet that Norway and 13 other countries are concerned that the World Health Organization (WHO) report on the origin of Covid-19 is coming too late.
– We are concerned that the report is too late. The pandemic virus was reported by China in January 2020 and a group of experts should be ready quickly to carry out their investigations. It’s also unclear whether the think tank has had access to all the data, Høie tells Dagbladet, continuing:
– The report was not released until Tuesday, so it still needs to be reviewed thoroughly. But in general, we can say that Norway believes that it is important that all countries during an outbreak situation quickly open their borders to such independent expert groups, make their data available and be open about it, so that experts can do a thorough analysis. and full evaluation.
Generate questions
In January, the WHO sent a group of experts to Wuhan, China, the city where the first corona cases were recorded in December 2019. On Tuesday, they said in a report that the virus likely originated in bats, but was transmitted to humans through another animal.
The expert group also believes that it is highly unlikely that the virus originated in a laboratory.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the report raises questions that need to be answered. It has also expressed concern that the expert group had difficulties accessing raw data in relation to the work.
– As far as I know, all the hypotheses are still on the table. The report is a very important beginning, but it is not the end. We have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must turn every stone in an attempt to find an answer using science, says the WHO chief, continuing:
– It takes time to find the origin of the virus, but we owe it to the people of the world so that we can try to reduce the risk of this happening again. A single trip cannot give us all the answers.
The reason
Høie claims that in addition to the joint statement by Norway, the United States, Britain, Denmark and several other countries, the EU also had its own statement on the report on Tuesday.
– It is important to know the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus; both to understand this pandemic, and above all to be able to reduce the risk of future pandemics. The WHO-appointed expert group has started this work, but the work must continue as there are no conclusions, only hypotheses, says Høie and continues:
– Making data available and transparency in the discussions that take place is absolutely essential to achieve the goal. That is the main reason we join a statement.
The Minister of Health affirms that they will continue their work to strengthen cooperation between countries and their capacity to respond to health crises in the future.
– China’s contribution and facilitation will continue to be important and we look forward to further cooperation, says Høie.
