Post by : Meena Ariff

Photo: Reuters

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that all ideas about how COVID-19 started are still open, even after four years of investigation. This pandemic has killed nearly 20 million people worldwide. It has also damaged economies, weakened health systems, and changed people’s lives in a big way.

The first cases of Covid-19 were found in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. Knowing where the virus came from is very important to stop future pandemics. However, WHO said they still don’t have enough data to confirm how it began.

The head of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that all possibilities remain on the table. This includes the virus coming from animals (called zoonotic spillover) or escaping from a laboratory.

In 2021, WHO and China did a joint study. They concluded that the virus probably spread from bats to humans through another animal. They also said it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab. However many experts criticized this report for not checking the lab leak theory properly and for not having enough transparency.

To get better answers, WHO created another team in July 2021 called the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO). This team had 27 international experts. They studied for many months and released a 78-page report recently.

Their report said that the most likely way the virus spread was from animals to humans. This might have happened directly from bats or through another animal. But they still don’t know for sure where and when it first spread. They said the Wuhan market seems to be a place where the infection spread quickly to many people, but it may not be the place where it first started.

SAGO’s chair, Marietjie Venter, said that until they get more data, they cannot give a final answer on how the virus started. She said they could not study the lab leak theory properly because they didn’t get enough information.

The team asked for more data from other countries, including Germany and the United States, but did not receive it. This week, one SAGO member resigned and three others asked to remove their names from the report.

Tedros said it is very important to find out how COVID-19 began, to honor the lives lost, and to prevent another pandemic in the future. He said the virus is still changing and taking lives, and many people are suffering from long Covid.

WHO asked China many times for more information, like viral sequences from the first people who got sick, details about animals sold in Wuhan markets, and information about the labs in Wuhan. However, China has not shared this data.

WHO also asked other countries to share any intelligence reports they have about the origins of Covid-19.

Tedros said this investigation is a moral duty for the world. SAGO will keep studying any new scientific data to find out the truth about how COVID-19 started.