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GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Friday (May 1) that it expected China to invite it to participate in its research into the animal origins of the new coronavirus.
“WHO would be interested in working with international partners and at the invitation of the Chinese government to participate in research on the origins of animals,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told AFP in an email.
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He said the UN health agency understood that there was a series of investigations underway in China “to better understand the source of the outbreak,” but added that “the WHO is not currently involved in the studies in China.”
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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.
But the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has fueled speculation and rumors, generally rejected by experts, that the virus may have emerged in a top-secret Chinese laboratory.
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The WHO has also faced scathing criticism from Trump, who earlier this month suspended funding from Washington after accusing the WHO of downplaying the severity of the outbreak and kneeling before China.
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The head of the UN health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, traveled with a team to China in late January, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to learn more about the response.
This paved the way, Tedros explained earlier this week, for an international team of scientists to travel there in February to investigate the situation, including experts from China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, Singapore and the United States of America.
But as investigations into the origins of the virus have accelerated in China, the WHO has not been involved.
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Ongoing investigations are believed to analyze “human cases with onset of symptoms in and around Wuhan in late 2019, environmental sampling of markets and farms in areas where the first human cases were identified, and detailed records on the source and type of wildlife and farm animals sold in these markets, “Jasarevic said.
He emphasized that the results of studies on the origin of the virus were “essential to prevent new zoonotic introductions of the virus that causes COVID-19 in the human population.”
“The WHO continues to collaborate with animal and human health experts, countries and other partners to identify research gaps and priorities for the control of COVID-19, including eventual identification of the source of the virus in China,” he said.
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