‘To prevent Covid-26, Covid-32, probe now’
Calls for investigation come over fears of similar heath crises in the coming years
WASHINGTON/WELLINGTON: The world needs the cooperation of the Chinese government to trace the origins of Covid-19 and prevent future pandemic threats, two leading US disease experts said on Sunday.
Information to support the theory that the Sars-cov-2 virus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China has increased, said Scott Gottlieb, a commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Trump administration who now sits on the board of Pfizer.
China hasn’t provided evidence to disprove that theory, while the search for signs that the virus emerged from wildlife hasn’t yielded results, Gottlieb told CBS.
Not knowing how the pandemic started puts the world at risk of future outbreaks, Peter Hotez, co-director of Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine
Development, said in a separate TV appearance. “There’s going to be Covid-26 and Covid-32 unless we fully understand the origins of Covid-19,” Hotez told NBC.
Almost a year and half after the pathogen was first detected spreading in a seafood market in Wuhan, the precise origins of the virus remain obscure. Scientists have hypothesised that it most likely spread from wild animals to humans.
Speculation that the virus may have accidentally escaped from a research lab, long promoted by some Republicans, got renewed attention from the Biden administration.
In a surprise statement on Wednesday, President Joe Biden called for a renewed investigation into the virus’s emergence.
US intelligence agencies had conflicting assessments of whether it was more likely the virus crossed the species barrier from a natural reservoir or leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Biden said. He ordered the agencies to “redouble their efforts” and report to him again in 90 days.
Down Under leaders agree on investigation
The leaders of New Zealand and Australia downplayed their differences over China and urged more investigation into the origins of the coronavirus on Monday after their first face-to-face meeting in more than a year.
Australian PM Scott Morrison met with his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern in Queenstown. Both leaders said they hoped the World Health Organization (WHO) would continue its investigation into the origins of the pandemic. “It’s got nothing to do with global politics,” Morrison said.
The WHO, battling to coordinate the global response to the pandemic, agreed on Monday to study recommendations for ambitious reforms made by independent experts to strengthen the agency.
In court for a case over a website article
that he said ran false statements about his late father’s home