Sources Contact Advanced Search Tutorials

An Interest In:

Web News this Week

Search Archive

Some of Our Sources

View All Sources

Help Webnuz

Referal links:

February 9, 2021 02:41 pm

With Mission To China, WHO Tries To Rehabilitate Its Image

A team of World Health Organization scientists said on Tuesday in China that the coronavirus probably first spread to humans through an intermediate animal host and was "extremely unlikely" the result of a lab accident. The New York Times: The findings, delivered after 12 days of field work by the team visiting Wuhan, China, were the first step in what will most likely be a painstaking process to trace the origins of the global pandemic, a question that is critical to helping prevent a recurrence. "All the work that has been done on the virus and trying to identify its origin continue to point toward a natural reservoir," said Dr. Peter K. Ben Embarek, a food safety scientist with the W.H.O., who is leading the team of experts, speaking at a news conference in Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus was first discovered late in 2019. Dr. Embarek dismissed the idea that the virus might have emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, a theory that has gained currency among some officials and experts in the United States and elsewhere. "It was very unlikely that anything could escape from such a place," he said, citing safety protocols. The W.H.O. experts largely focused their comments on the scientific aspects of their mission. But the inquiry has been in many ways overshadowed by politics. The Chinese government has continued to suggest that the virus may have originated overseas, an idea that many scientists discount. Chinese officials on Tuesday used the news conference to continue to promote this theory, arguing that the search for the origin of the virus should focus on places outside China. The investigation will "not be restricted to any location," said Liang Wannian, who led the team of Chinese scientists assisting in the W.H.O. mission. The W.H.O. experts at the three-hour news conference did not challenge the statements by the Chinese officials. They pledged to examine reports of early cases of the virus outside China. They also called for more research into the animals that were sold at a sprawling market in Wuhan where some of the first cases of the virus were detected. For the W.H.O., the visit served as a chance to dispel criticism that it is too deferential to China.

Slashdot

Slashdot was originally created in September of 1997 by Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. Today it is owned by Geeknet, Inc..

More About this Source Visit Slashdot