The WHO team is expected to soon publish a 300-page final report on its investigation, after scrapping plans for an interim report on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 — the new coronavirus responsible for killing 2.7 million people globally
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
UPDATED on 4/1/2021
Coronavirus: More work needed to rule out China lab leak theory says WHO
START QUOTE
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said further investigation is needed to conclusively rule out that Covid-19 emerged from a laboratory in China.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that although a lab leak was the least likely cause, more research was needed.
The US and other countries have criticised China for failing to provide the WHO with sufficient data.
Beijing has always dismissed the allegations of a virus leak.
A report by WHO and Chinese experts released on Tuesday, said the lab leak explanation was highly unlikely and the virus had probably jumped from bats to humans via another intermediary animal.
China has yet to respond to the WHO’s latest statement.
‘All hypothesis on the table’
However the theory that the virus might have come from a leak in a laboratory “requires further investigation, potential with additional missions involving specialist experts,” Dr Tedros said on Tuesday.
“Let me say clearly that as far as WHO is concerned, all hypothesis remain on the table,” he added.
The virus was first detected in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province in late 2019. An international team of experts travelled to to the city in January to probe the origins of the virus.
The team investigated all possibilities, including one theory that the virus had originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The institute is the world’s leading authority on the collection, storage and study of bat coronaviruses.
International criticism
In response to the WHO report, the US and 13 allies including South Korea, Australia and the UK voiced concern over the findings and urged China to provide “full access” to experts.
The statement said the mission to Wuhan was “significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples”.
“Scientific missions like these should be able to do their work under conditions that produce independent and objective recommendations and findings.”
The group pledged to work together with the WHO.
Former US President Donald Trump was among those who supported the theory that the virus might have escaped from a lab.
WHO investigation team leader, Peter Ben Embarek said on Tuesday his team had felt under political pressure, including from outside China but said he was never pressed to remove anything from the team’s final report.
He also confirmed his team had found no evidence that any laboratories in Wuhan were involved in the outbreak.
MORE …
SOURCE
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56581246
@@@@
Ex-CDC Director Robert Redfield believes COVID-19 came from Wuhan lab
March 26, 2021 | 10:03am | Updated
START QUOTE
The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes the virus that causes COVID-19 escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, according to a new interview.
Robert Redfield told CNN on Friday that it was his “opinion” that SARS-CoV-2 — the new coronavirus responsible for killing 2.7 million people globally — did not evolve naturally.
“I’m of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathology in Wuhan was from a laboratory — escaped,” said Redfield, who led the CDC during the height of the pandemic. “Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out.”
Researchers believe the deadly and highly transmissible strain of coronavirus behind the global pandemic mutated from a virus that infects animals — namely, bats — to one that sickens humans.
But some believe the virus was somehow released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology — which is the only lab in China authorized to study the most dangerous known pathogens, according to Axios.
“It’s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect the laboratory worker. … That’s not implying any intentionality,” Redfield said. “It’s my opinion, right? But I am a virologist. I have spent my life in virology.
“I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human and at that moment in time, that the virus came to the human, became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human transmission.”
Redfield said usually when a virus jumps from animals to humans, “it takes a while for it to figure out how to become more and more efficient in human-to-human transmission.”
SOURCE
START QUOTE
What they’re saying: “I’m of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathology in Wuhan was from a laboratory. Escaped. Other people don’t believe that. That’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out,” Redfield told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta.
- “It’s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in a laboratory to infect the laboratory worker. … That’s not implying any intentionality. It’s my opinion, right? But I am a virologist. I have spent my life in virology,” he continued.
- “I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human and at that moment in time that the virus came to the human, became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human transmission.”
Between the lines: Lab accidents in the U.S. are not especially rare, as USA Today’s Alison Young noted in a recent opinion piece arguing why the Wuhan lab theory cannot be ruled out. The CDC itself experienced a possible contamination in a lab where it was making COVID-19 test kits early in the pandemic.
What to watch: The WHO team is expected to soon publish a 300-page final report on its investigation, after scrapping plans for an interim report amid mounting tensions between the U.S. and China.
SOURCE
Leave a Reply