The Independent Expert Council (SAGO), appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October 2021, recommended this in a first preliminary report on Thursday. Research on corona viruses is being carried out in Wuhan in China, where the first Sars-CoV-2 cases appeared at the end of 2019.
The necessary investigations include an “assessment of potential scenarios in which failure of biosecurity procedures has led to possible laboratory-associated infection with the investigated pathogen,” the report says. Council President Marietjie Venter emphasized that the recommendation says nothing about how likely the laboratory thesis is. Studies are also needed to disprove them. The most likely theory is that the virus jumped from an animal to humans via an intermediate host.
China, Russia and Brazil against investigation
Three members of the almost 30-strong committee, which also includes the Berlin virus researcher Christian Drosten, did not want to support this recommendation: the scientists from China, Russia and Brazil recorded their rejection in a footnote of the report. China has dismissed the theory that the virus could have originated in a Chinese lab and has refused to allow another international group of experts to search for the origin of the virus. Numerous Chinese scientists belonged to the Council. Nevertheless, numerous questions remain unanswered, said Venter – for example about the markets in Wuhan, the origin of animals and early possible corona infections in China.
The Council is to develop guidelines so that future investigations into pandemic outbreaks can be started more quickly. There was tension with the corona virus, especially between China and the USA. Former US President Donald Trump blamed China for the spread of the virus. Because of the tensions, the international experts were only able to enter China in 2021. Everything will be done to implement the SAGO recommendations, said WHO corona expert Maria van Kerkhove. But this requires the cooperation of the countries.
Source: Nachrichten
