WHO report on Covid-19 origins

WHO report on Covid-19 origins

Subject: Science and Technology

Section:

Context: A panel of experts drafted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and prepare a framework to investigate future outbreaks has published its first report.

• The panel, set up in October, comprises 26 experts from around the world and is called the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).
• Its work follows a previous WHO-China report on COVID-19, and a US intelligence inquiry, both of which pointed towards a natural origin for the pandemic, likely from bats, rather than a lab leak.
• However, it says that neither the original animal source, the intermediate host, nor the moment the virus crossed over into humans, has been identified.

Why has the origin not been identified?

• That is chiefly because a lot of data is missing, particularly from China.
• Chinese scientists have provided more information, including on blood samples from 40,000 Chinese donors in Wuhan from September to December 2019 when the pandemic emerged.
• Of these, more than 200 samples initially tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 antibodies, the virus causing COVID-19, but confirmatory tests were negative.

Can the lab leak theory be true?

• The panel also said that no further information has been provided on whether the coronavirus may have reached humans via a laboratory incident, meaning more data and investigations remained important.

What is the next step?

• The panel called for a number of studies to be carried out both in China and globally to shed further light on the pandemic’s origins.
• These include additional studies on the first human cases in China, as well as efforts to trace whether the virus was circulating in China – and elsewhere – before the first cases were found.