Desk Report
Publish: 26 Aug 2021, 01:17 pm
World Health Organization ||Photo: Collected
The search for the origins of the Covid
pandemic that has killed millions and crippled economies is at a standstill
even as time is running out, scientists charged with the task by the UN warned
Wednesday.
An initial report by the team of
independent, international experts sent to China by the World Health
Organization in January concluded that it was most likely that the SARS-CoV-2
virus jumped from bats to humans via an intermediate animal.
A competing hypothesis that the virus
somehow leaked from a lab, like the specialized virology laboratory in Wuhan,
was deemed "extremely unlikely".
But in a comment in the journal Nature, 11
of the 17 scientists on that mission said it was only intended as a "first
step in a process that has stalled."
"The search for the origins of
SARS-CoV-2 is at a critical juncture," they wrote.
"The window of opportunity for
conducting this crucial enquiry is closing fast."
Tracing the biological trail back to the
earliest pockets of the disease, which first surfaced in Wuhan in late 2019,
becomes more difficult as evidence disappears or becomes corrupted.
'No impediment'
The statement comes less than two weeks
after the WHO, in a bid to revive the probe, urged China to hand over
information on the earliest Covid-19 cases.
This should include Covid data for 174
infections identified in December 2019 that China failed to share during the
initial investigation, the experts said.
The investigators said "it was
agreed" at the time that a second phase of research would fill in this
gap.
But China pushed back against the WHO
request earlier this month, saying the January investigation should suffice and
that calls for further data were motivated by politics, not science.
The WHO meanwhile highlighted Wednesday that
the international experts' report, published in March in coordination with
their Chinese counterparts, had laid out a number of studies that should be
conducted, insisting there was no reason to wait.
"We have encouraged all parties to
pursue those studies," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters
from the UN health agency's Geneva headquarters.
Other WHO experts at the press conference
stressed there was no need to wait for another international mission to China
before delving into the many further studies needed there, pointing out that
there were many capable Chinese scientists who could do the work.
"There is no impediment right now for
those studies to go ahead, and Chinese colleagues don't need WHO to hold their
hands through this kind of a process," WHO emergencies director Michael
Ryan agreed.
"In fact, many of our Chinese colleagues
do report that those studies are underway, and we very much look forward to
receiving data and reports."
'Diminishing returns'
Beijing has especially bridled at the
suggestion that the virus might have escaped from the Wuhan virology lab.
On Tuesday US intelligence agencies
presented President Joe Biden with a report looking at both the animal
transmission and "lab-leak" hypotheses. The findings were described
as inconclusive.
The Nature piece noted that current data
does not support the lab-leak scenario.
None of six priorities for further research
mentioned after the January mission, which has faced criticism for lacking
transparency and access, alluded to this possibility.
Rather, the scientists emphasised the need
to trace the earliest cases of Covid through disease reporting and antibody surveys,
inside and outside China.
They also called for further investigation of
wildlife farms and wild bats.
"As SARS-CoV-2 antibodies wane, so
collecting further samples and testing people who might have been exposed
before December 2019 will yield diminishing returns," they said.
They added that many of the wildlife farms of interest for study have been closed and their livestock killed. (AFP)
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