WHO tells China to be transparent in sharing data to determine Covid's origins

The WHO has criticised China for withholding data related to samples taken at a market in Wuhan in 2020 that could have provided vital information about the Covid19 pandemics origins calling on Beijing to be transparent and to share results of investigations it conductsThe Huanan market in central Chinas Wuhan city was the epicentre of the pandemic From its origin there the SARSCoV2 virus rapidly spread to other locations in Wuhan in late 2019 and then to the rest of the worldEvery piece of data relating to studying the origins of COVID19 needs to be shared with the international community immediately These data could have and should have been shared three years ago World Health Organisation WHO DirectorGeneral Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on FridayWe continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results Understanding how the pandemic began remains both a moral and scientific imperative he saidGhebreyesus said that last Sunday the global health agency was made aware of data published on the GISAID database in late January and taken down again recentlyAlso Read China denies COVID vaccines to defectors from North Korea ReportThe data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention relates to samples taken at the Huanan market in Wuhan in 2020 he saidGhebreyesus said while the data was online scientists from a number of countries downloaded the data and analysed itAs soon as we became aware of this data we contacted the Chinese CDC and urged them to share it with WHO and the international scientific community so it can be analysed he said adding that WHO also convened the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens or SAGO which met on TuesdayWe asked researchers from the Chinese CDC and the international group of scientists to present their analyses of the data to SAGO These data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer he saidIn a report Thursday the New York Times said that an international team of virus experts said they had found genetic data from a market in Wuhan China linking the coronavirus with raccoon dogs for sale thereThe NYT report said that the genetic data was drawn from swabs taken from in and around the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market starting in January 2020 shortly after the Chinese authorities had shut down the market because of suspicions that it was linked to the outbreak of a new virusWhile the animals had been cleared out from the market researchers took swabs from the walls floors metal cages and carts used for transporting animal cagesIn samples that came back positive for the coronavirus the international research team found genetic material belonging to animals including large amounts that were a match for the raccoon dog the report said quoting three scientists involved in the analysisThe report noted that after the international team came across the new data it reached out to Chinese researchers who had uploaded the files with an offer to collaborate However after that the sequences disappeared from GISAIDGlobally there have been more than 760360900 confirmed cases of COVID19 including over 6873400 deaths according to the World Health OrganisationWHO said that three years later while there are almost 7 million reported deaths from COVID19 we know that the actual number of deaths is much higherGhebreyesus expressed confidence that this year we will be able to say that COVID19 is over as a public health emergency of international concernHe however noted that we are not there yet given that last week there were still more than five thousand reported deaths from COVID19Thats five thousand too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated Even as we become increasingly hopeful about the end of the pandemic the question of how it began remains unanswered he saidWe have a duty to ourselves to end this pandemic as soon as possible We have a duty to those we have lost to find out how it started he saidThe NYT report said that the jumbling together of genetic material from the virus and the animal does not prove that a raccoon dog itself was infectedAnd even if a raccoon dog had been infected it would not be clear that the animal had spread the virus to people Another animal could have passed the virus to people or someone infected with the virus could have spread the virus to a raccoon dog the report saidBut the analysis did establish that raccoon dogs fluffy animals that are related to foxes and are known to be able to transmit the coronavirus deposited genetic signatures in the same place where genetic material from the virus was left according to the scientistsThey noted that the evidence was consistent with a scenario in which the virus spilled into humans from a wild animalThe new evidence comes weeks after a new intelligence assessment from the US Department of Energy pointed out that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the pandemicBut the genetic data from the market offers some of the most tangible evidence yet of how the virus could have spilled into people from wild animals outside a lab It also suggests that Chinese scientists have given an incomplete account of evidence that could fill in details about how the virus was spreading at the Huanan market the NYT report saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever