WHO not invited to join investigation into COVID-19 origins

The novel coronavirus, which originated from the city of Wuhan in China, has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people from all over the world, according to the figures from Johns Hopkins University. (File photo: @macauphotoagency/Pixabay photo)

An official of the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that they have not yet received any invitations from China, asking them to be part of an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

WHO’s representative in Beijing, Dr. Gauden Galea, confirmed this in an interview with Sky News, saying the WHO has been making requests to take part in the investigation, “but at this stage, we have not been invited to join.”

“The origins of [the] virus are very important, the animal-human interface is extremely important and needs to be studied. The priority is we need to know as much as possible to prevent the reoccurrence,” he emphasized.

Asked whether there is a good reason to exclude WHO from the inquiry, Galea answered, “From our point of view, no.” He said they are expecting China to discuss possible collaboration with the WHO “in the near future.”

The novel coronavirus, which originated from the city of Wuhan in China, has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people from all over the world, according to the figures from Johns Hopkins University.

On Thursday, United States President Donald Trump said he has seen evidence that gives him confidence that the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). But when pressed to give further details to back up his claim, Trump responded, “I can’t tell you that. I’m not allowed to tell you that.”

Meanwhile, Yuan Zhiming, vice director of the WIV, earlier denied in an interview with Chinese state broadcaster CGTN that the virus originated from their lab, saying such accusation was “entirely based on speculation.”

“As people who carry out viral studies, we clearly know what kind of research is going on in the institute and how the institute manages viruses and samples. As we said early on, there is no way this virus came from us,” he said, continuing, “We have a strict regulatory regimen and code of conduct of research, so we are confident.”

Yuan also said he does not believe that the virus was manmade.

“From my personal understanding of Virology, there is no evidence to prove that the virus has artificial or synthetic evidence. Besides, some scientists believe that to synthesize a virus requires an extraordinary intelligence or workload. So, I have never believed that we, humans, have the capability at this time to create such a virus,” he explained.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) also said in a statement released on Thursday that the U.S. intelligence community concurred “with the wide scientific consensus” that the novel coronavirus was not manmade or genetically modified. It added that the intelligence community has yet to determine whether or not the outbreak “was the result of an accident” at the Chinese laboratory.

Intelligence Community Statement on Origins of COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/MIPr6LVzU4

— Office of the DNI (@ODNIgov) April 30, 2020