While the FBI has deemed it “likely” that Covid-19 emerged following a laboratory leak in Wuhan, the director of the World Health Organization has asked all countries to share their information on the origins of the virus. virus.
The WHO on Friday urged all countries to share their information on the origins of Covid, following the FBI and the US Department of Energy ruled that a lab leak caused the pandemic.
In recent days, the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic have attracted renewed attention.
“If a country has information on the origins of the pandemic, it is essential that this information is shared with the WHO and the international scientific community,” said World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom. Ghebreyesus, during his regular press conference.
It’s not regarding ‘pointing blame’, he said, but regarding ‘advancing our understanding of how this pandemic began, so that we can prevent future epidemics and pandemics, prepare for them. and respond to it”.
A laboratory accident?
FBI Director Christopher Wray said this week that a lab accident in Wuhan, China is “very likely” to be the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, two days following a similar hypothesis put forward by the US Department of Health. ‘Energy.
Asked specifically regarding this, Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the response to Covid-19 at the WHO, explained that the agency had requested information from senior officials of the American Representation to the United Nations in Geneva.
“We have sent requests (…) for information on the latest report from the Department of Energy, but also on additional reports from various American agencies”, she detailed.
“At this time, we do not have access to these reports or to the data that made these reports possible,” she said.
The scientific community believes that it is crucial to know the origins of this scourge in order to be able to fight it better or even avoid a future pandemic.