Dramatic move after ongoing China lab Covid claims
The World Health Organisation has moved to quash an ugly war-of-words between the US and China over the origins of Covid-19 by announcing a new investigation team.
The US has continued to push the theory that the Covid-19 virus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, angering Beijing who refute the claim.
And while a joint mission to Wuhan earlier this year ruled such a theory was highly unlikely, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus unexpectedly fuelled the flames by suggesting further investigation into the theory was needed.
WHO mission lead says lab leak 'likely'
Adding to the confusion, WHO mission leader Peter Ben Embarek has since said that the lab hypothesis merited further study and such a scenario was in the "likely" category.
He told a documentary broadcast in his native Denmark on Thursday that China has refuted such a claim as it would be down to human error and they are "not happy to admit it".
On Friday, the WHO called for an end what it called "political point scoring" that has hampered investigations.
The WHO called for all governments to cooperate to accelerate studies into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and "to depoliticise the situation".
It specified that a new advisory group called the International Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens would support "the rapid undertaking" of further studies.
"We should work all together. You, me, everyone wants to know the origin of worst pandemic in a century," WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said at a UN briefing on Friday.
The US government on Friday welcomed the WHO plan, noting the "emphasis on scientific-based studies and data driven efforts to find the origins of this pandemic so that we can better detect, prevent and respond to future disease outbreaks".
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President Joe Biden in late May ordered aides to find answers on COVID-19 origins and report back in 90 days.
However Chinese state media has accused Washington of attempting to "make up" evidence to discredit China.
In its final report, written jointly with Chinese scientists, a WHO-led team that spent four weeks in and around the city of Wuhan in January and February said that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.
Beijing has reacted angrily to suggestion the virus was a result of a lab leak, pointing the finger instead at the US and suggesting the virus had in fact leaked from US military base Fort Detrick.
China faced criticism in the wake of the initial origins visit and was accused of not sharing key data on initial cases.
China's top experts said privacy of individual cases meant not all data could be shared.
With Reuters
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