People still seeking the origins of Covid-19 say all scenes are “stayed on the table” – Country
The World Health Organization says investigations into the origin of the SARS-COV-2 virus that contributed to the COVID-19 pandemic are still underway, and despite three years of investigation, no exact cause has been found.
“As things get the impact, all assumptions have to be kept on the table, including zoonotic spillions and lab leaks,” Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director, said in a press conference on Friday.
His comments were published Friday in a report by the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origin of New Pathogens (Sago), which said “available evidence” supports the hypothesis that the coronavirus jumps from animals to humans through a process called zoonotic Spillover, possibly from bats “or intermediate hosts.”
Sago is a 27 independent, international, multidisciplinary expert group established by the World Health Organization to advise on technical and scientific considerations for emerging and reappearing pathogens such as Covid-19.
“While it may be zoonotic transmission from animals from bats or intermediate hosts to humans, Sago is currently unable to conclude exactly when, where, and how SARS-COV-2 enters the population for the first time,” the report reads.
It noted that the closest “precursor strain” was identified in bats in China and Laos, but said the strain was too far away from the virus to be a direct source of the pandemic.
The report notes that some of the difficulties in determining the cause are because China does not share certain information, which also makes it difficult to check the second hypothesis, which indicates an unexpected laboratory leak.
The country asked the country to share hundreds of genetic sequences of 19-year-old patients during the pandemic, as well as more detailed information about animals sold on the Wuhan market, as well as work done by Wuhan laboratories and biosafety conditions.
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“So far, China has not shared this information with Sago or who has it.”
Marietjie Venter, chairman of the group, said in a press conference on Friday that without the necessary data, it will not be able to assess whether the virus was the result of a laboratory accident.
“So, this assumption cannot be investigated or excluded,” Venter said. “It is considered very speculative based on political views rather than scientific support.”
The hypothesis is a reason that President Donald Trump has repeatedly believed, although U.S. intelligence analysis found insufficient evidence to prove the theory.
Two other assumptions are provided in the report, first of which is to introduce into the animal market through the “cold chain process” and to infect humans through contact with products sold on the market.
Venter said there is no other evidence to support the assumption and more data is needed to prove it.
The last hypothesis involves intentional manipulation of the virus in the lab, followed by a biosecurity vulnerability, which is still not supported, Venter notes that Sago examines the virus’s genomic structure and any related publications and reports, but found no evidence to support it.
If more information is available, all four hypotheses will be re-evaluated, but Venter said the first hypothesis related to zoonotic spillovers is considered a supported hypothesis.
“The origins of SARS-COV-2 entering human populations will remain uncertain until more scientific data are available,” she said.
Ghebreyesus recognized in the briefing that the task of investigating the cause was difficult and told reporters that not all Sago members agreed to everything, which was “predictable”.
He said earlier this week that a member of the team resigned and three other members requested their names to be removed from the report.
Ghebreyesus continued to express concerns that China did not provide further information and encouraged the information, as well as other governments he said had conducted COVID-19 to provide this data.
Last year, the Associated Press found that the Chinese government frozen meaningful domestic and international efforts in the first few weeks of the 2020 outbreak to track the origins of the virus and who may have missed an early opportunity to investigate the pandemic’s way.
Chinese officials have repeatedly refuted the idea that the pandemic could have started in the lab, saying the search should be conducted in other countries.
Last September, researchers included a short list of 19 animals they thought might have listed together, including raccoon dogs, civet cats and bamboo mice.
– Documents with the Associated Press
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
