The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he was ready to send a new expert mission to China to uncover the origins of Covid-19 and called for “full access” in an interview with the FT.
• Also read: COVID-19: EU gives green light to new version of Moderna vaccine
• Also read: What do we know about the Nipah virus outbreak in India?
“We urge China to provide full access and we ask countries to raise the issue in their bilateral meetings (to encourage Beijing to cooperate),” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the Financial Times.
He explains that the WHO has already asked China “in writing” to “provide us with information… and we are ready to send a team if they allow us to do so.”
The international community has not yet been able to determine with certainty the origin of Covid. If, a priori, the first cases were discovered in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019, two theories collide: either a leak from a laboratory in the city where these viruses were studied, or an intermediate animal that infected people who had a local one Visited market.
A team of specialists led by the WHO and accompanied by Chinese colleagues investigated in China in early 2021.
In a joint report, they supported the hypothesis of transmission of the highly contagious virus to humans through an animal that acted as an intermediary between the bat and humans, possibly in a city market. Chinese.
Dr. Tedros later claimed that “all hypotheses remain on the table.”
Neither team has been able to return to China and WHO officials have repeatedly requested additional data.
Dr. Tedros has repeatedly reiterated that the WHO has no intention of abandoning research and has repeatedly called on Beijing to “be transparent in sharing data, conduct the necessary research and share the results.”
The WHO raised the maximum alert level for the pandemic in March. Thanks to vaccines, acquired immunity after infection and better treatment options, the virus is now much better under control, even if infections in the northern hemisphere are increasing again as autumn approaches and new variants have emerged.