World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is set to discuss the next phase of an investigation regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic with the body’s member states Friday.
But in this new phase, he hopes China will cooperate more fully and give a team of investigators access to raw data, which was a problem earlier in the investigation process, he said during a press briefing Thursday.
“We are asking, actually, China to be transparent, open, and cooperate, especially on the information [of] raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic,” Tedros said.
He also said more information is needed before excluding the theory that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China, which the country’s government has repeatedly denied.
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“There was a premature push to … reduce one of the options, like the lab theory,” Tedros said. “As you know, I was a lab technician myself. I’m an immunologist, and I have worked in the lab, and lab accidents happen. It's common. I have seen it happening. And I ... myself had errors.”
He added, “So it can happen, and checking what happened, especially in our labs, is important,” saying also that “if we get full information, we can exclude that.”
Understanding what occurred will help prevent something similar from happening in the future, and the world owes that to the millions who suffered and died from COVID-19, according to the WHO chief.
“Take the number of deaths alone: more than 4 million. I think we owe it to them to know what happened,” he said.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
