Finding COVID-19's origins is a moral imperative - WHO's Tedros
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[March 13, 2023]
GENEVA (Reuters) -Discovering the origins of COVID-19 is a moral
imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, the head of the World
Health Organization said, in the clearest indication yet that the U.N.
body remains committed to finding how the virus arose.
A U.S. agency was reported by the Wall Street Journal to have assessed
the pandemic had likely been caused by an unintended Chinese laboratory
leak, raising pressure on the WHO to come up with answers. Beijing
denies the assessment which could soon become public after the U.S.
House of Representatives voted this week to declassify it.
"Understanding #COVID19's origins and exploring all hypotheses remains:
a scientific imperative, to help us prevent future outbreaks (and) a
moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and
those who live with #LongCOVID," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on
Twitter late on Saturday.
He was writing to mark three years since the WHO first used the word
"pandemic" to describe the global outbreak of COVID-19.
Activists, politicians and academics said in an open letter this weekend
that the focus of the anniversary should be on preventing a repeat of
the unequal COVID-19 vaccine rollout, saying this led to at least 1.3
million preventable deaths.
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Director-General of the World Health
Organisation (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gives a statement
with German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (not pictured) in
Geneva, Switzerland, February 2, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
In 2021, a WHO-led team spent weeks
in and around Wuhan, China where the first human cases were reported
and said in a joint report that the virus had probably been
transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, but further
research was needed. China has said no more visits are needed.
Since then, the WHO has set up a scientific advisory group on
dangerous pathogens but it has not yet reached any conclusions on
how the pandemic began, saying key pieces of data are missing.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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