The latest report on the origin of the virus behind the pandemic is still inconclusive, but there are lessons to be learned from it.
NEW YORKER
Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Energy—one of several government agencies that have looked into how sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19, first emerged—has come to believe that the pathogen probably escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The department, which was previously undecided on the matter, reportedly changed its position in light of fresh intelligence, but it issued its determination with “low confidence.” In doing so, it joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in favoring to some degree the lab-leak theory over the view that the virus has a zoonotic origin, leaping from animals to humans, perhaps in a Wuhan wet market. According to the Journal, the new information, which is in a classified report, but was reviewed by other members of the intelligence community, did not lead others to update their conclusions: four intelligence agencies, as well as the National Intelligence Council, still believe, also with “low confidence,” that natural transmission was responsible, and two remain undecided. (None think that China intentionally created the virus as a bioweapon.) Reviewing the totality of available evidence on the origins of a virus that by some estimates has killed twenty million people worldwide, the American intelligence community has reached a judgment that falls somewhere between not sure and who knows.
WHO Still Working to Identify the Origins of COVID-19
Friday, 3 March, 2023 -
A medical worker in protective gear waits to administer COVID-19 tests for reporters who was signed up to cover the press conference and the opening of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), at a quarantine hotel in Beijing, Thursday, March 2, 2023.(AP)
Asharq Al-Awsat
The World Health Organization (WHO) is still working to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, its director general said on Friday, after a US agency was reported to have assessed the pandemic had likely been caused by a Chinese laboratory leak.
"I have written to and spoken with high-level Chinese leaders on multiple occasions as recently as just a few weeks ago... all hypotheses on the origins of the virus remain on the table," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the US Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies.
"I wish to be very clear that WHO has not abandoned any plans to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic," Tedros said.
The US Energy Department made its judgment with "low confidence" in a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress, the Journal said, citing people who had read the intelligence report.
Four other US agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still think COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided, the Journal reported.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, expressed frustration on Twitter on Thursday that the United States had not shared additional information with the WHO on its reports assessing the origin of the virus.
On Friday, she urged countries, institutions and research groups that might have any information on the origins of the pandemic to share it with the international community.
"We don't completely have the answers to how this pandemic began and it remains absolutely critical that we continue to focus on this," she said.
She said it was crucial to study coronaviruses circulating in animals and how people come into contact with those animals.
"Our work continues on this space: looking at studies in humans, looking at studies in animals, looking at studies at the animal human interface, and also looking at potential breaches in biosafety and biosecurity for any of the labs that were working with coronaviruses, particularly where the first cases were detected in Wuhan, China, or elsewhere," she said.
By Staff Reuters
Posted March 3, 2023
“I have written to and spoken with high-level Chinese leaders on multiple occasions as recently as just a few weeks ago… all hypotheses on the origins of the virus remain on the table,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the pandemic likely arose from a Chinese laboratory leak, an assessment Beijing denies.
“I wish to be very clear that WHO has not abandoned any plans to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Tedros said.
The U.S. Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence” in a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress, the Journal said, citing people who had read the intelligence report.
Four other U.S. agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still think COVID-19 was likely the result of natural transmission, while two are undecided, the Journal reported.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, expressed frustration on Twitter on Thursday that the United States had not shared additional information with the WHO on its reports assessing the origin of the virus.
On Friday, she urged countries, institutions and research groups that might have any information on the origins of the pandemic to share it with the international community.
“We don’t completely have the answers to how this pandemic began and it remains absolutely critical that we continue to focus on this,” she said.
She said it was crucial to study coronaviruses circulating in animals and how people come into contact with those animals.
“Our work continues on this space: looking at studies in humans, looking at studies in animals, looking at studies at the animal human interface, and also looking at potential breaches in biosafety and biosecurity for any of the labs that were working with coronaviruses, particularly where the first cases were detected in Wuhan, China, or elsewhere,” she said.
— Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber in Geneva, Bhanvi Satija and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne
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