All hypotheses on table, countries should share intelligence on origin of Covid 19: WHO
1 min read . Updated: 04 Mar 2023, 04:23 PM IST
Premium- WHO said that the information about the origins of Covid 19 virus is not about blaming someone
The World Health Organisation (WHO) urged all countries of the world to gather intelligence about the origins of the Covid-19 virus and share that with the global health body. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also affirmed that all hypotheses on the origins of the virus remain on the table.
The development comes as the United States energy department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has released some reports claiming that the pandemic was most likely caused by a "potential lab incident" at a Chinese government-controlled facility in Wuhan.
"Over the past few days there has been renewed attention on the origins of the #COVID19 pandemic. As we have said before, if any country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it is essential for that information to be shared with WHO..." WHO said in a tweet.
The global health agency also added that the information about the origins of Covid 19 virus is not about blaming someone, but more about advancing our understanding of how this pandemic started.
“...and the international scientific community – not so as to apportion blame, but to advance our understanding of how this pandemic started, so we can prevent, prepare for and respond to future epidemics and pandemics" the tweet added.
The comments by the health body came after it received some criticism for not seriously investigating the origins of the Covid-19 virus. In January 2021, the health body sent a team of experts to China, to investigate the same but nothing concrete was released. Recently, the WHO has also postponed the second phase of the investigation.
WHO Chief has stressed that politics around such research actually hamper the efforts of the scientific community.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Christopher Wray has claimed that China is trying its best to thwart the efforts toward finding the origins of Covid 19 virus.
“I will just make the observation that the Chinese government … has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing," Wray told US news channel Fox News.