As the WHO report on the origin of the virus was released on Tuesday (March 30), Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the WHO mission to Wuhan, China, to study the origin of the Chinese communist virus (coronavirus) was blocked from obtaining data in China and that the origin of the virus needed further investigation. In his speech, he also publicly admitted for the first Time that he could not rule out the possibility that the virus had leaked from the Wuhan laboratory.
The WHO mission conducted a four-week investigation in and around Wuhan, China, during January and February. The mission’s final report was delayed again and again, and was finally released Tuesday. The release of the report came as Tandezai made the comments to WHO member states.
Tandezai: WHO mission blocked from getting data in China
Reuters reports that a WHO team investigator has previously said that the Chinese Communist Party refused to provide the mission with raw data on early COVID-19 cases during its investigation in China, which could complicate efforts to understand how COVID-19 began.
“In my discussions with the team, they indicated difficulties in obtaining raw data,” Tandse said, “and I hope that future collaborative studies will include more timely and comprehensive data sharing.”
In its final report, the WHO mission concluded that the possibility of the virus leaking from the Wuhan laboratory was defined as “highly unlikely” and concluded that it was “very likely” that the virus was transmitted from bats to humans via another animal, while the possibility of the virus being transmitted directly from bats to humans or The possibility of transmission through frozen Food is somewhere in the middle.
But Tandse said the WHO mission did not fully analyze the possibility of a laboratory leak before concluding that the pathogen could have been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal. He said further investigation is still needed and that additional missions may be sent back to China to investigate again.
“I’m not convinced that this assessment is broad enough,” Tandse said, “and further data and studies are needed to draw stronger conclusions.”
“To figure out the earliest cases, scientists would benefit from full access to data, including biological samples at least as early as September 2019.” Tandse said, “We have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must continue to follow the science and leave no stone unturned (to find answers).”
While Tandse has consistently said that all options are possible and that WHO will not shut down any avenues of investigation, Tuesday’s comments were his first public acknowledgement of the possibility of a lab leak.
For its part, the Chinese Communist Party rejects the notion that the virus leaked from the lab.
Tandse has been criticized by Trump administration officials for being too defensive of the Chinese Communist Party in the early stages of the outbreak. His latest statement comes amid strong questions about the WHO findings from former and current U.S. secretaries of state and the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
WHO report highly questioned by experts and U.S. officials
The draft contents of the joint report were disclosed in the media in advance of the release of the final WHO report on Tuesday.
Robert Redfield, the CDC director under former President Trump, told CNN on March 26 that he believes the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab, but that the leak was not necessarily intentional.
As a virologist, Redfield questioned the notion that the virus was passed from animal to human, saying it made no sense biologically that the virus could be passed from animal to human and spread so well from human to human.
He also said that usually when a virus is passed from an animal to a person, “it takes a while to figure out how to become more and more effective in human-to-human transmission.”
“I don’t believe this somehow got from bats to people and the moment the virus was passed to humans, it became one of the most infectious, human-to-human transmitted viruses that we know of.” He said.
Redfield said he believes the virus most likely escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. He believes the outbreak began locally in Wuhan in September 2019 or October 2019, several months ahead of the official Communist Party timeline.
“My view is that I still think the most likely cause of this disease in Wuhan is the escape (of the virus) from the laboratory.” Redfield further elaborated, “Others don’t believe that. That’s OK. Science will eventually figure that out.”
“That’s my opinion,” Redfield said, “but I’m a virologist. I’ve been dealing with virology my whole Life.”
He said he didn’t make that statement with any intent.
Redfield served as CDC director from 2018 through 2021, meaning his tenure covered the period from the outbreak until this year when the Trump Administration left office, and his specialty was again virologist.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has “real concerns” about how the report was produced and how it was written. “including concerns that the Chinese Communist authorities “helped write the report.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Feb. 21, “We don’t think China [the Chinese Communist Party] has provided enough raw data to understand how this Epidemic began to spread in China and eventually spread around the world.”
The White House said Monday (March 29) that several U.S. experts will extensively review the WHO report on the source of the Chinese Communist virus, focusing on confirming whether the investigation is independent and technically sound.
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