An international group of scientists is calling for new research into the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19 – arguing that the current research led by the World Health Organization is too restricted by the Chinese government to be reliable.
The WHO-led team – which traveled to Wuhan earlier this year – had “insufficient access” during the investigation, the group said in an open letter obtained by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
“We want to make the public aware of the fact that half of the joint team convened under this process is made up of Chinese citizens whose scientific independence may be limited, that international members of the joint team have had to rely on information that the Chinese authorities have decided to share with them , and that any report by the joint team must be approved by the Chinese and international members of the joint team, ”says the letter.
The letter – signed by virologists, biologists and public health experts from countries ranging from France to India – continues to state that the WHO team did not have the necessary “independence” to investigate properly.
“We therefore came to the conclusion that the joint team did not have the mandate, independence or access necessary to carry out a complete and unrestricted investigation in all hypotheses of origin of SARS-CoV-2 – whether overflowing or laboratory. / research-related incident ”, states the letter.
In the meantime, the WHO-led team should have released an interim report on its own findings – but rejected the plan and instead will only release the full report, the Wall Street Journal revealed.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on February 12 that the team would release the interim report summarizing its mission. The WHO team now plans to publish the summary when it releases the full final report in the “next few weeks,” according to a WHO spokesman.
“By definition, a summary report does not contain all the details,” said Dr. Ben Embarek, a food safety scientist who led the team. “So, from there [is] so much interest in this report, just a summary would not satisfy the readers’ curiosity. “
Earlier this month, a scientist on the WHO-led team said the virus probably started in China and “most likely” came from bats – despite official WHO findings remaining inconclusive.
The news comes at a time when the United States is lobbying for more transparency in the investigation, with officials saying the Wuhan mission report should be examined.
Meanwhile, China is pushing for similar WHO-led missions to other countries, including the U.S., to investigate whether COVID-19 may have originated from frozen foods that were sent to Wuhan, according to the Journal.