WHO is wary of its own report on the orig …

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, ratified this Tuesday on calls for a new investigation into the origin of the coronavirus and questioned the lack of access to information from the team of experts that investigated in China.

In the specialist’s report, the agency notes that it considers the hypothesis that the virus escaped from a laboratory in the city of Wuhan, in central China, “unlikely”.

This text was also polled by 13 countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom, which also demanded that China grant “full access” to experts.

Although the researchers concluded in their final report that the hypothesis that the coronavirus escaped from a laboratory in the city of Wuhan, in central China, is unlikely, Tedros said this possibility “requires further investigation” and assured that he was “willing to deploy” a new mission.

Accompanied by WHO experts and Chinese scientists during the official presentation of the report – the central sections of which were already known on Monday – the head of the United Nations health agency said the investigation had led to “significant” progress in the knowledge of the question, but which at the same time generated new doubts which “require further study”.

The report, published by various media before its formal presentation, considers it “extremely unlikely” that the coronavirus was due to an accident or a leak of pathogens from a laboratory.

According to the document, experts are inclined to the so far accepted theory that the virus was transmitted from a first animal, probably a bat, to humans, via another animal which served as an intermediary and which did not not yet identified.

The report was eagerly awaited as its findings could help scientists avoid future pandemics, but it is also extremely sensitive as China has flatly rejected any indication that it is responsible for the pandemic.

Several delays in releasing the report had raised doubts as to whether China was trying to skew its conclusions.

In this direction, the head of the WHO complained of the “difficulties” encountered by the experts to “access the original data” during their stay in China.

In the same vein, but in addition to imposing some responsibility on Beijing for the task of investigators, the United States and 13 allies have spoken, demanding “full access” to information for experts.

“We come together to voice our common concerns” about the recent study, said the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Slovenia in a statement. .

The text regrets that the mission supported by the WHO in China “He was significantly delayed and was denied access to the original and complete data and samples.”

“It is essential that independent experts have full access to all people, animals and environmental data, surveys and personnel involved in the early stages of the epidemic, which are relevant to determining how this pandemic came about,” the statement added, which does not explicitly state. criticize China.

According to the signatory countries, these shared concerns pursue the benefit of knowing everything about the origins of the pandemic, AFP agency reported.