Corona virus from Wuhan laboratory after all?
WHO boss wants to further investigate theory
Created: 06/20/2022, 15:24
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks about the coronavirus at a press conference at WHO headquarters (file image, December 20, 2021).
© picture alliance/dpa/KEYSTONE |
Salvatore Di Nolfi
According to official information, the World Health Organization wants to further investigate the theory of a laboratory accident in Wuhan.
For WHO chief Adhanom, one origin of the corona virus in particular should be valid.
Geneva – According to Johns Hopkins University, around 6 million people have already died of Corona.
But the exact origin of the corona virus is still unclear more than two years after the beginning of the pandemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) now wants to reopen the investigations and has set up an expert council for this purpose.
The organization demands that the search for the origin should be depoliticized.
Coronavirus origin from Wuhan lab?
WHO boss is said to believe in this theory
British tabloid
Daily Mail
claimed on Saturday that WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus privately believes in the theory of a laboratory accident in Wuhan.
A likely explanation for the coronavirus pandemic was a "catastrophic accident" in a laboratory in Wuhan, the WHO chief is said to have confided to a European politician.
The paper cites a "high-ranking government source" as its source, which is not named.
There is no other evidence in the report.
The use of anonymous sources is debated in journalism.
The renowned newspaper
New York Times
, for example, only uses this in individual cases, for example when it comes to national security and a story could not be reported otherwise.
In this case, however, the World Health Organization itself stated in an official statement that it wanted to further investigate the laboratory accident theory.
Coronavirus origin from Wuhan lab?
WHO wants to further investigate laboratory accident theory
According to a new expert council, the World Health Organization should also continue to look at the theory of a laboratory accident in its investigations into the origin of the corona virus.
More studies are needed to also "assess the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 being introduced into the human population through a laboratory accident," the Scientific Advisory Group on the Emergence of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) said in its first report on June 9 .
The Expert Council was set up by the WHO in October to develop new guidelines for research into emerging pathogens in order to be able to better respond to pandemics in the future.
The scientists are also expected to make recommendations on how to move forward with the stalled investigation into the origin of the coronavirus.
The German virologist Christian Drosten is also a member of the committee.
In the investigations into the origin of the corona virus, many important questions are still open, the committee explained.
The most likely theory is still that the corona virus jumped from an animal to humans via an intermediate host - even if the original host, the intermediate host or hosts and the exact transmission route have still not been clarified.
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Coronavirus origin in Wuhan?
"Just because it's in the report doesn't mean we definitely believe it"
SAGO chairwoman Marietjie Venter pleaded with journalists to continue examining all possible hypotheses.
"Just because it's in the report doesn't mean we definitely believe it," she said, referring to the lab theory.
Her colleague Jean-Claude Manuguerra added: "We have to be open and examine all the hypotheses, including this one."
In an interview with the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
in February of this year, the renowned expert Christian Drosten did not rule out the laboratory hypothesis, but classified it as "rather unlikely".
He did say that the researchers in Wuhan "did definitely do things [...] that could be described as dangerous.
It really didn't have to be.
But the Sars-CoV-2 virus could not have come out of it," the SAGO panel member continued, adding: "There is nothing that does not exist.
I don't want to rule it out, but it's just a possibility right now."
Institute Director for Virology Christian Drosten.
© Michael Kappeler/dpa/archive image
Among other things, the SAGO experts are demanding access to staff and data from research laboratories in China and other countries that work with corona viruses in order to check their safety precautions.
The report by the SAGO experts themselves shows how sensitive the topic is: Three members from China, Russia and Brazil did not want to follow the recommendation of their colleagues, as Venter admitted.
WHO chief Adhanom calls for further investigations in the Wuhan laboratory, but the Chinese government is against it
The corona pandemic started in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.
It was soon speculated that the virus could have escaped in an accident from the institute of virology in Wuhan, where research on corona viruses is carried out.
In January 2021, the United States government said it had reason to believe that several researchers within the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) fell ill in the fall of 2019, before the first identified case of the coronavirus outbreak.
The symptoms would have been consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.
This raises questions about the credibility of WIV researcher Shi Zhengli's public claim that
that there were "no infections" with SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses among the employees and students of the WIV.
This emerges from a report published in January 2021 by US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.
Since 2016 at the latest, a bat coronavirus has been examined in the laboratory that has a 96.2 percent similarity to SARS-CoV-2, the report continues.
Employees disinfect a shopping center in Wuhan.
The corona pandemic started in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.
Soon there was speculation about a laboratory accident in the Wuhan laboratory.
© picture alliance/dpa/XinHua |
Wang Yuguo
The Chinese government vigorously denies this.
It was not until January 2021 that an international team of experts from the WHO was able to visit Wuhan - more than a year after the virus was discovered.
However, the report presented by the experts did not provide any clear results on the origin of the pandemic.
At the time, the WHO experts classified the so-called laboratory theory as “extremely unlikely”.
However, doubts and criticism quickly arose about the report and the investigation itself.
Many countries have expressed concern that international experts have been denied access to important data in their investigation in China.
The Chinese government has so far vehemently rejected further investigations, as requested by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
US President Joe Biden announced last year that he wanted to get to the bottom of the origins of the corona virus, drawing the wrath of China.
Biden's advisers had previously advised viewing the WHO report "with healthy scepticism."
