Head of WHO has said that it has been premature to rule out the possibility of lab leak as a cause of COVID-19 pandemic emergence. It has been requested to China to become more open and transparent regarding this issue. Scientists have been searching about the origin of COVID-19. If the experts manage to find the origin then it may become easy to develop a remedy.
Usually, World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks in favor of the powerful and strong member countries. However, he has said this time that it is becoming difficult to find the actual data by the team of international experts. The team has travelled to China for investigation regarding the source of COVID-19. First case of coronavirus has been reported from Wuhan, China.
To the reporters, Tedros has said “asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic.
In the beginning, WHO have ruled out the notion of a laboratory leaks. However, it may have been premature of them to do so. On the occasion, he has also dismissed the WHO March report that has said chances of a lab leak is ‘unlikely’.
Tedros has said “I was a lab technician myself, I’m an immunologist, and I have worked in the lab, and lab accidents happen, It’s common”
Recently, the idea of virus is engineered in the laboratory got lot more traction after newly elected American President Joe Biden has ordered for an investigation on the issue. On the occasion, China has replied quite aggressively and said that it is a politically motivated agenda to link COVID-19 virus with a possibility of lab leak. China has also suggested that the virus may have started in abroad. According to China, search for the origin of COVID-19 should be done in other countries also.
Most of scientists have been assuming that the coronavirus has originated from bats. However, it is not cleared yet how it has been transferred to a human for the first time. It can be an intermediary animal or some other means. Decades are usually taken to locate the actual source of a virus. It has been noticed the same for Ebola and Sars also.
Emphasizing on the importance of China’s cooperation on the issue, Tedros has said “We need information, direct information on what the situation of this lab was before and at the start of the pandemic. If we get full information, we can exclude (the lab connection).”
However, Tedros has previously praised China for the transparency and speed. However, the senior officials from has reprimanded the Chinese counterparts internally.
Last year, Associate Press has reported that WHO is frustrated due to lack of information from China regarding COVID-19 early stage and hose it has spread. It has been also said that China is preventing the efforts to search the origin of COVID-19.
