After an expert group investigating the virus’ origins reached an unsatisfying conclusion in its final report released on Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “all hypotheses must remain on the table” to determine the origin of the virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2.
In order to prevent future pandemics, Tedros urged China and any other nation that has information about COVID-19 to openly disclose it in order to protect the world from future pandemics.
Millions of people died worldwide as a result of the global pandemic, which started in 2020. Countries have implemented lockdowns to combat the spread of the virus. Information from Wuhan, China, as the first cases were discovered in late 2019, is thought to be essential for preventing future pandemies.
A panel of 27 independent international experts called SAGO (World Health Organization Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens) was founded in 2021 by Tedros.
The group’s chair, Marietjie Venter, stated on Friday that the majority of scientific evidence supports the theory that humans and animals ate the new coronavirus.
Despite numerous requests for more in-depth information from the Chinese government, SAGO was unable to obtain the necessary data after more than three years of work.
Therefore, she stated that this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded, but that it was deemed to be incredibly speculative, based on political beliefs, and not supported by any scientific evidence.
Venter added that there was no proof COVID had been manipulated in a lab and that there had never been any signs of it spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China.
“Remains unconclusive.”
A group of WHO experts traveled to Wuhan in 2021 to examine the virus’ origins alongside Chinese counterparts.
Their joint report by the end of March that year determined that the most likely explanation was an intermediate animal that transported bats to humans.
A lab leak was “extremely unlikely,” they claimed at the time.
However, that investigation was criticized for being lenient with the lab-leak theory and for lacking transparency and access.
SAGO was then launched.
According to the SAGO report, “the weight of the available evidence suggests zoonotic [a disease that spreads between animals and humans] spillover… either directly from bats or through an intermediate host.”
The origins of SARS-CoV-2 entering human populations will remain elusive until more scientific evidence is made, Venter said.
Understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it sparked a pandemic is necessary to save lives and livelihoods, she added.
Source: Aljazeera
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