Experts question if WHO should lead pandemic origins probe
As the World Health Organization draws up plans for the next phase of its probe of how the coronavirus pandemic started, an increasing number of scientists say the UN agency isn't up to the task and shouldn't be the one to investigate. Numerous experts say that political tensions between the US and China make it impossible for an investigation to find credible answers.
Second phase of study to examine first human cases
The first part of a joint WHO-China study of how COVID-19 started concluded in March that the virus probably jumped to humans from animals and that a lab leak was extremely unlikely. The next phase might try to examine the first human cases in more detail or pinpoint the animals responsible, possibly bats, perhaps by way of some intermediate creature.
Biden has also ordered an investigation into the various scenarios
But the idea that the pandemic somehow started in a laboratory and perhaps involved an engineered virus has gained traction recently, with President Joe Biden ordering a review of US intelligence within 90 days to assess the possibility. Earlier this month, WHO's emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said that the agency was working out the final details of the next phase of its probe.
WHO needs more power to investigate the origins: Official
We will never find the origins relying on the WHO, said Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University. Gostin said the US and other countries can either try to piece together what intelligence they have, revise international health laws to give WHO the powers it needs, or create some new entity to investigate.
A 2012 outbreak among Chinese miners closely resembles COVID-19
The closest genetic relative to COVID-19 was previously discovered in a 2012 outbreak when six miners fell sick with pneumonia after being exposed to infected bats in China's Mojiang mine. In the past year, however, Chinese authorities sealed off the mine, confiscated samples from scientists, and ordered locals not to talk to visiting journalists. China abruptly pulled back from coronavirus investigation in early 2020.
An alternative investigation can be given a shot: Officials
Jamie Metzl, who sits on a WHO advisory group, has suggested along with colleagues the possibility of an alternative investigation set up by the Group of Seven industrialized nations. Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, said the US must be willing to subject its own scientists to a rigorous examination and recognize that they might be just as culpable as China.
US has allegedly funded controversial experiments at the Wuhan lab
The US was deeply involved in research at the laboratories in Wuhan, Sachs said, referring to US funding of controversial experiments and the search for animal viruses capable of triggering outbreaks. "If lab work was somehow responsible (for the pandemic), the likelihood that it was both the US and China working together on a scientific initiative is very high," he added.
