The WHO is hunting for the coronavirus's origins. Here are the new details.
BEIJING Ten months have passed since health officials cited Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market as ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic—and a global debate over how the pandemic began has existed for nearly as long. But the public may soon learn answers as the World Health Organization embarks on the final stages of a search for the coronavirus’s origins.
During an October 23 news conference, Michael Ryan, the WHO Health Emergencies Programme executive director, said Chinese scientists have already begun early studies for the two-phase investigation. Based on what those experts find, the WHO will then deploy an international team in China to collaborate with many of the country’s top scientists in tracing COVID-19’s roots. A week later, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a group of international experts had held a first virtual meeting with their Chinese counterparts, before pledging the WHO’s full support for the process. And on November 5, the WHO quietly released details on its mission with China, which it describes as a global study of the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
The months-long delay in starting this investigation has raised criticism from public health researchers and world leaders, such as U.S. President Donald Trump, who have accused the WHO of being too deferential to China’s wishes. During the first phase of the search, a WHO team won’t be present for the on-the-ground surveys and will only review and discuss data collected by Chinese researchers. Some reports have described this arrangement as the WHO ceding responsibility, given the organization is sponsored by individual nations and China is its second-biggest funder after the United States.
But disease detectives who have worked on similar hunts say this is business as usual. The WHO lacks the staffing—with 7,000 employees spread across 150 countries—to conduct a full-scale investigation on its own and always relies on national teams or international volunteers for field work.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/11/world-health-organization-china-search-covid-origins-what-to-expect/
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