MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Michael Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organisation's health emergencies programme, on Friday urged the international community to avoid politicisation of the WHO probe into the origin of the coronavirus.
In early 2021, the WHO sent a fact-finding mission to the Chinese city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected, to identify the origin of COVID-19 by examining laboratories, hospitals, and markets for clues about the virus’ origins. The experts concluded that a leak from the lab was "extremely unlikely", while the virus was most likely transmitted to humans from bats through an intermediary animal. A related report was published in March.
However, Washington, jointly with several other nations and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed concerns about whether Beijing communicated all raw data on the coronavirus to the WHO after media reports that the organization's investigators were denied access to data on more than a hundred early cases of COVID-19. The states branded the WHO report as incomplete, while China denied all allegations and welcomed the results of the probe.
"This whole process is being poisoned by politics, and if you expect scientists to do their work, if you expect scientists to collaborate and get the answers that you want; actually seek in a non-blame environment to find the origin of the virus so we may all learn how to prevent this happening in the future, we would ask that this be done in a de-politicized environment where science and health is the objective, and not blame and politics", Ryan said at a press briefing, referring to the tensions between China and the US regarding the study.
When asked about the origins of the virus, the official said that the organization continued to look into the conclusions of the expert mission to Wuhan, adding that more work is needed to identify the source of COVID-19.
"We will be reaching out to member states in order to seek their guidance if there are more experts that can research origins of the virus", Ryan said.
He reiterated the call "to separate the politics of this issue from the science", and noted that they had little material on the matter, which is "disturbing".