An international group of scientists is calling for a new investigation into the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19 – arguing that the current World Health Organization-led probe is too restricted by the Chinese government to be credible.
The WHO-led team – which traveled to Wuhan earlier this year – had “insufficient access” during the investigation, the group said in an open letter obtained Thursday by the Wall Street Journal.
“We want to make the public aware that half of the joint team convened in this process is made up of Chinese citizens whose scientific independence may be limited, that the international members of the joint team had to rely on information that the Chinese authorities have chosen to share them with them and that any joint report of the team must be approved by both Chinese and international members of the joint team, ”the letter reads.
The letter – signed by virologists, biologists and public health experts from French to Indian countries – further states that the WHO team did not have the “independence” needed to properly investigate.
“We therefore conclude that the Joint Team did not have the necessary mandate, independence or access to conduct a full and unlimited investigation into all relevant SARS-CoV-2 hypotheses of origin – whether it is a natural spillover or a spillover. laboratory / incident related to research “, it is shown in the letter.
Meanwhile, the WHO-led team should have released an interim report so far on its own findings – but it has scrapped the plan and will only publish the full report instead, the Wall Street Journal has revealed.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on February 12 that the team would publish the interim report summarizing its mission. The WHO team now intends to publish the summary when it publishes the full final report in the “next few weeks”, according to a WHO spokesperson.
“By definition, a summary report does not have all the details,” Dr. Ben Embarek, a food safety scientist who led the team, told the newspaper. “It simply came to our notice then [is] so much interest in this report that a summary would not satisfy the curiosity of readers. ”
Earlier this month, a scientist on the WHO-led team said the virus probably started in China and “most likely” came from bats – despite official WHO findings that were inconclusive.
The news comes as the US lobbies for more transparency in the investigation, with officials saying the Wuhan mission report needs to be examined.
Meanwhile, China is calling for similar WHO-led missions to other countries, including the United States, to investigate whether COVID-19 could have come from frozen food that was shipped to Wuhan, according to the Journal.