WHO FORMS NEW EXPERT GROUP TO CONTINUE STUDIES INTO ORIGINS OF COVID-19

Fri 13 August 2021:

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that the next step in the search of the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be the creation of a new advisory group that will develop a global framework to study pathogens with pandemic potential.

The first WHO fact-finding mission to China’s Wuhan, where the first COVID-19 outbreak was reported in late 2019, released its report in March. While experts failed to determine the exact origin of the virus, they concluded that it most likely originated in animals and was transmitted to humans from bats via an intermediary animal.

“The International Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens, or SAGO, is a new advisory group for WHO, which will be responsible for advising WHO on the development of a global framework to systematically study the emergence of future emerging pathogens with pandemic potential. For SARS-CoV-2, it will support the rapid undertaking of recommended studies outlined in the March 2021 report,” the WHO said.

The March report also said that the virus was unlikely to have leaked from a state-run lab in Wuhan, an allegation promoted by the United States.

“To move forward, WHO calls for all governments to depoliticize the situation and cooperate to accelerate the origins studies, and importantly to work together to develop a common framework for future emerging pathogens of pandemic potential,” the statement read.

The WHO expressed hope that all countries, including China, can collaborate and put in place the conditions for more missions to be sent to Wuhan to duly probe the “lab hypothesis.”

The WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To date, more than 205 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, and more than 4.3 million died, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

In this file photo from February, Peter Ben Embarek, a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), attends the WHO-China joint study news conference at a hotel in Wuhan, Hubei province [File: Aly Song/Reuters]

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