World Health Organization says it is “only focused on science”
The World Health Organization has called on governments to “depoliticise” the investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 virus, which has been the subject of tense exchanges between politicians and officials in recent weeks.
The move comes after the Chinese government said last month it would not accept further inquiries that include the possibility of a lab leak of the virus, complaining of “political manipulation” of the origin investigation.
Call for cooperation
On 12 August the WHO said it had “outlined the next series of studies that need to be undertaken and continues to be in discussions with member states and experts on next steps”.
It added: “To move forward, WHO calls for all governments to depoliticise the situation and cooperate to accelerate the origins studies, and importantly to work together to develop a common framework for future emerging pathogens of pandemic potential.”
The WHO said it wants to “accelerate scientific efforts on all hypotheses” about the virus origin. It said the investigation “is not and should not be an exercise in attributing blame, finger-pointing or political point-scoring”, but instead is “vitally important” for avoiding future pandemics.
China and several of its other member states have written to the WHO suggesting the origin investigation had been politicised “or that WHO has acted due to political pressure”, the organisation said. But the WHO insisted it “is only focused on science, providing solutions and building solidarity”.
A new WHO International Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens is being set up to develop a framework for dealing with emerging diseases, and the WHO said an open call for nominations represented “a transparent foundation” for the group.
Theory fallout
An initial WHO report into the origin of Covid-19 dismissed a theory that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology as “extremely unlikely”. But on 15 July the WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been a “premature” push to rule the theory out.
The Chinese government then issued its refusal to back further investigations unless the lab-leak theory was ruled out. This prompted a global group of science leaders including the EU R&D commissioner Mariya Gabriel to urge the government to reconsider.
Asked about the plea, a spokesperson for the Chinese mission to the EU said that “politicising the origins study [had] deliberately disrupting international cooperation on global origins tracing”.