pressure on China share your background information COVID-19practiced World Health Organizationhaving said that until that happens, all scripts remain on the table.

“Without full access to the information that China has, we cannot say anything,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the agency.

“Everything is pending. This is the position of the WHO, and for this reason we are asking China to cooperate in this,” he added. “If they do, then we will know what happened and how it started.”

The virus was first detected in Wuhan in December 2019, and many suspected that its spread began in a market in the Chinese city.

International study and Chinese doubts

Data on the early days of the pandemic was updated by Chinese scientists in an international database last month. These include genetic sequences found in more than 1,000 animal and environmental samples taken in January 2020 at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan.

Evidence shows DNA from several animal species, including raccoon dogs, was present in environmental samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, indicating these animals were “the most likely carriers » diseases. according to an international team of researchers.

However, in a study published this week in the journal Nature, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention cast doubt on the validity of the findings of an international scientific team.

They said the samples did not prove that the animals were indeed infected. They were taken a month after human-to-human transmission of the virus first started at a market in Wuhan, so even if they tested positive for Covid, these animals were probably infected by humans.

“Hints but no answers”

WHO scientist Maria Van Kerkow, head of the Covid division, said the latest Chinese information provides some “clues” about the origin of the virus but does not provide answers. He said the WHO is working with scientists to learn more about the first cases since 2019, such as where the infected are.

He added that the WHO still doesn’t know if some of the necessary research has been done in China.

The WHO has also requested baseline data from the United States supporting a recent US Department of Energy study stating that the pandemic was likely caused by a laboratory leak of the virus.

^{Source: Reuters.}

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