The Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on China to offer greater transparency regarding the origins of Covid-19 and expressed readiness to dispatch a second investigative team to examine the matter. The genesis of the pandemic remains unclear almost four years after the initial cases were reported in Wuhan, China, Financial Times reported.
“We are urging China to provide full access, and we are encouraging countries to raise this issue in their bilateral discussions, urging Beijing to cooperate,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding “We have already formally requested information from them and are also prepared to send a team if they grant us permission to do so.”
These comments from the WHO chief come as health authorities update vaccines in response to a surge in Covid-19 cases. While scientists agree that the world is no longer in the acute phase of the pandemic, the global health body emphasised the need for nations to enhance surveillance of the highly mutated BA.2.86 and other Omicron subvariants, according to Financial Times, a British daily business newspaper.
Next week, world leaders will discuss pandemic preparedness during high-level meetings at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Tedros revealed that he travelled to Beijing in January 2020 to persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping to allow the first WHO mission of experts to investigate Covid-19. This mission, led by Bruce Aylward of the WHO, marked the initial foray into China to examine the virus’s origins.
Two primary theories about the virus’s origins are under consideration: a zoonotic jump from animals to humans through Wuhan’s wet markets or contagion originating from an accidental release from the city’s virology laboratory. However, no scientific consensus has been reached, and Tedros emphasized that all possibilities remain “on the table,” stating, “Unless we have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot make definitive conclusions. But I believe we will find the answer. It’s just a matter of time.” Regarding his meeting with President Xi, Tedros explained, “I met with the president and the officials beneath him initially hesitated to permit us to send a team. So I had to travel there to explain why it was so crucial.”