Webdesk: The head of the World Health Organization said that finding out where Covid-19 came from is a moral obligation. All theories must be looked into, he added.
The WSJ said that a US agency thought the pandemic was probably caused by an accident in a Chinese lab. This put more pressure on the WHO to find answers. Beijing denies the assessment.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter late Saturday night, “Understanding #COVID19’s origins and exploring all hypotheses remains: a scientific imperative, to help us stop future outbreaks, and a moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with #LongCOVID.”
He was writing to mark the fact that it had been three years since the WHO first used the word “pandemic” to talk about the spread of Covid-19.
In an open letter released this weekend, activists, politicians, and academics said that the anniversary should be about making sure that the unequal rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine doesn’t happen again. They said that this caused at least 1.3 million deaths that could have been avoided.
In 2021, a WHO-led team spent weeks in and around Wuhan, China, where the first human cases were reported. They said in a joint report that the virus probably went from bats to humans. But more research was needed in this regard. China has said there is no need for any more visits.
Since then, the WHO has set up a scientific advisory group on dangerous pathogens. However, it has not yet decided how the pandemic started because it is missing key pieces of data.
