The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday urged all countries to reveal what they know about the origins of Covid-19, following US claims of a Chinese lab leak and furious denials from Beijing.
US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that the FBI had now assessed the source of the Covid-19 pandemic as “most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan”.
Chinese officials have angrily denied the claim, calling it a smear campaign against Beijing.
“If any country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it’s essential for that information to be shared with WHO and the international scientific community,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted.
“Not so as to apportion blame but to advance our understanding of how this pandemic started so we can prevent, prepare for and respond to future epidemics and pandemics,” he told a press conference.
“WHO has not abandoned any plans to identify the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he stressed.
In 2021, the United Nations’ health agency set up the so-called Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, which identified key studies that are needed in China and elsewhere to test hypotheses on the origins of the pandemic.
WHO urges transparency
“WHO continues to call for China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results,” said Tedros, adding that he had written and spoken to top Chinese leaders on multiple occasions.
“Until then, all hypotheses on the origins of the virus remain on the table,” he said.
But he added that continued politicisation of the research of the origins was turning a purely scientific process into a geopolitical football, making the task harder — and thereby the world less safe.
The first infections were recorded in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
Wray’s comments come after a report earlier this week said the US Department of Energy had determined that a leak from a Chinese lab was the most likely cause of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The department works with a network of national laboratories, including some that do advanced biological research. Other agencies within the US intelligence community believe the virus emerged naturally.
China has urged India to "maintain dialogue to properly manage differences" during a meeting between top diplomats of the two nations in the Indian capital of New Delhi.
Qin Gang and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met on the sidelines of the G-20 Foreign Ministers meeting on Thursday and "agreed" to promote the improvement of China-India relations, according to a statement released by China's Foreign Ministry on Friday.
“The two sides should view their relations under the background of the global changes unseen in a century, carry out bilateral cooperation in view of national rejuvenation and go hand in hand on the road to modernization,” Qin told Jaishankar, according to the statement.
It was Qin and Jaishankar's first meeting since the former was appointed China's foreign minister in last December.
Pointing to the border dispute between the two Asian neighbors, Qin stressed that the issue should be “put in an appropriate position in bilateral relations and both sides should strive to switch from emergency response to normalized management and control on the border.”
“China is willing to work with India to speed up the recovery of bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields and resume direct flights as soon as possible to facilitate personnel exchanges.
“The two sides should maintain dialogue to properly manage differences, and promote the improvement and steady growth of bilateral relations as soon as possible,” Qin said.
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