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The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced its intention to dispatch a team of scientists to China to investigate the origins of the virus that led to a global crisis.
In an initial inquiry conducted by the UN health agency in 2021, a group of scientists visited Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and concluded that Covid-19 likely had a natural origin.
It was reported that Beijing had been reluctant to engage in discussions regarding the lab leak theory unless the final report unequivocally stated that no further investigation was required, and critical data and samples were withheld.
Now, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has formally requested ‘complete access’ from Beijing and expressed the organization’s readiness to dispatch investigators.
“We are urging China to grant us full access,” he informed the Financial Times. “We have already made a written request for information and are also prepared to send a team if they grant us permission.”
The WHO’s earlier investigation into the origins of Covid-19 in 2021 faced significant criticism and was marred by a lack of cooperation from the Chinese government led by Xi Jinping.
Dr. Ghebreyesus’s recent remarks underscore the WHO’s growing willingness to openly criticize China for its lack of transparency regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nearly four years since the initial cases of the virus were reported in Wuhan, scientists are still no closer to definitively identifying its origins. Understanding how the Covid-19 pandemic began is considered crucial for preventing future outbreaks.
Prominent virologists who support the theory of natural origins believe that the virus likely originated in bats and subsequently infected an intermediary species, possibly a pangolin, before spilling over to humans.
Multiple studies have pointed to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan as the epicenter of the outbreak. Many of the earliest cases in December 2019 and January 2020 had connections to the market, where live animals were sold.
