Origins of Covid-19: several countries call on the WHO to continue its investigation in China

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Several countries, including the United States, on Tuesday called on the World Health Organization to continue studying the origins of the virus, which still remain unclear even if the hypothesis of transmission by an animal remains privileged.

These calls were launched on the occasion of the 74th World Health Assembly, which has brought together the 194 members of the WHO since Monday.

During the debates, which take place online from Geneva, an American representative, Jeremy Konyndyk, stressed on Tuesday the importance of having "a solid, comprehensive and expert-led investigation into the origins of Covid-19".

Read alsoOrigins of the Covid-19: Wuhan laboratory staff would have fallen ill in November 2019

“It is important that we prepare phase 2 of the origins study for it to be successful”, believing that the analysis should be “science-based and independent”.

Other countries, including Australia, Japan and Portugal, have also made similar calls.

The first phase of the study was conducted at the start of the year in the Wuhan region, considered the cradle of the pandemic, jointly by international experts and Chinese scientists, against a background of suspicion of a lack of independence from Beijing.

China accused of obstructing WHO Wuhan mission

On March 29, experts concluded that transmission to humans by an intermediate animal is a "likely to very likely" hypothesis, and claimed that a laboratory incident - a thesis strongly defended by former US President Donald Trump - remains "extremely unlikely".

A day later, the head of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, accused until then of having been too complacent towards Beijing, had toughened his tone, saying he was ready to send experts to investigate the hypothesis of a leak of a Chinese laboratory.

China has always denied this possibility.

But China was accused of having hindered the mission, in particular by taking months before accepting the arrival on its soil of scientists.

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Origin of Covid-19: WHO leaves China without certainty

The WHO boss himself criticized China's lack of access to data. The head of the delegation of international scientists, Peter Ben Embarek, then downplayed the matter, saying that in China as elsewhere some data could not be shared for reasons of privacy, and that he made an effort to find solutions to have access to data "in phase 2 of the study". But since then, the WHO has not given any information on the progress of this second phase of the study. "The purpose of this investigation is not to assign responsibilities, but to rely on science, to find the origin of the virus and the epidemic to help us all to prevent such a global catastrophe from happening. happen again, ”said US Representative Jeremy Konyndyk.