The World Health Organization (WHO) will continue to push for studies on how the Covid-19 pandemic started, the agency’s chief said, denying an earlier media report that the mission had been abandoned because of difficulty in conducting crucial studies in China.
“I assure you that we will continue to push. We will continue to pursue until we get the answer because this is scientifically correct and morally correct to really pursue and understand the answer to the origins and how this pandemic has started,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, at a media briefing on Wednesday.
The remarks came on the same day the journal Nature reported the agency had shelved the second phase of its scientific investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, citing challenges over attempts to conduct studies in China.
China’s foreign ministry pushed back against the Nature report, saying the country has “always supported and participated in global scientific origin tracing”.
“China has always maintained an open, transparent and responsible attitude on the issue of origin tracing. China will continue to support global scientific tracing for Covid-19 origins and maintain communication and cooperation with the WHO,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.
In a briefing on Wednesday, Wang said the country had received WHO experts to cooperate on tracing the origins of the virus and shared research findings with the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins on Novel Pathogens (Sago), an expert committee to study the origin of Covid-19 and emerging diseases.
“China has shared more data and research findings on Sars-CoV-2 origins study than any other country. This fully demonstrates China’s open, transparent and responsible attitude and its support for the work of the WHO and Sago,” Wang said.
Visited 1 times, 1 visit(s) today
