In an open letter, scientists around the world rejected the WHO report on the origin of COVID-19 and demanded a new investigation.

“The joint China-World Health Organization report on COVID-19 did not provide credible answers on how the pandemic began, so more rigorous investigations are needed, with or without participation from Beijing, “demanded a group of international scientists and researchers. Wednesday.

Expert work from the World Health Organization, released last week, indicates that the most likely route of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – involved bats and other wild animals in China and Southeast Asia. He almost completely ruled out the possibility of a lab leak. However, and warned that the criticisms would multiply, the director of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced that further investigations are necessary and admitted that the researchers did not have access to all the raw data.

In the open letter, the 24 scientists and researchers from Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan, denounced that the WHO fact-finding mission in Wuhan (Hubei), where the disease first appeared, ended 2019, had been unduly influenced by political factors.

To Jamie Metzl, the Atlantic Council investigator who drafted the letter, WHO has made concessions to obtain a minimum of cooperation from the Chinese authorities.

In the text, experts say the study’s findings are based on unpublished Chinese research, while biological samples “remain inaccessible”.

“The world may need to go back to ‘Plan B’ and investigate as systematically as possible without Beijing’s involvement. China has databases on the viruses that they had, there are lab notes on the work that was in progress, there are all kinds of scientists doing the work and we don’t have access to those. resources or those people, ”Metzl revealed.

The group of scientists is looking for new research that includes experts in biosafety and biosecurity. The commission could involve the WHO or an independent multinational effort to establish a different process to explore the beginnings of the pandemic and its origins in China.

Metzl said renewed calls for further investigation reflected the need to better control and restrict viruses that can be studied in laboratories around the world. “This is not a fight against China,” Metzl insisted.

And warned that one of the requirements is to substitute the right of veto of any government for the composition of the team of international experts by a provision requiring that final decisions on the composition of the international expert group be taken by the WHO Executive Board.

In addition, demand a transparent selection of the team of experts whose official mandate is to request full access to all places, archives and expressions of interest, and to interview those concerned “without the presence of government authorities and with the ‘help from translators provided by WHO’.

They also call for the establishment of a secure reporting system that allows scientists in China and other countries to share relevant information without fear of reprisal.

The complete open letter, in English:

The Chinese regime has consistently rejected the “lab leak” theory and demands that investigations now focus on other countries. Chinese state media have speculated that Covid reached Wuhan through frozen food imported from abroad.

However, in addition to scientists, Several governments have accused Tedros of covering up Beijing’s mistakes in the early stages of the pandemic. They argue that the WHO has delayed the declaration of human-to-human transmissibility of the virus. In addition, they denounce that the international organization did not insist that its experts go to Wuhan at the start of the health crisis.

Although former US President Donald Trump has been one of the most critical of the WHO and China, The current Biden administration has also expressed doubts about the report and announced that experts in that country will review the document to ensure the investigation is independent and sound. “We have made it clear that we are focusing on an independent and technically sound investigation, and once that is examined, we will have an assessment of the next steps,” said Jen Psaki, White House press secretary.

“We have real concerns about the methodology and process used for this report, including that the Beijing government apparently helped write it.”warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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