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The Biden administration has renewed calls from the U.S. for more comprehensive research into the origins Covid-19, after consolidating reports last weekend, strengthened the theory that the disease was accidentally released from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
U.S. President Coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt said Tuesday’s investigation last year World Health Organization he did not do enough to explain how the disease began to spread among humans.
A was talking afterwards report Three scientists from the Wuhan laboratory in the Wall Street Journal fell ill with similar symptoms of Covid-19 in November, a month before the first official case was reported.
Slavitt told reporters, “We need to get to the end of this and we need a process that is completely transparent from China. We need the WHO to help with this issue. We don’t feel that way now. We need to get to the end of this, whatever the answer, and that’s a priority. it’s critical for us. ”
Scientists working for the WHO last year found that the virus was “very unlikely” to escape the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and it is much more likely to spread to humans from animals.
Some scientists quickly criticized the report, however, while China facilitated it, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus admitted that it was not broad enough. According to Tedros, WHO scientists have had difficulty obtaining “raw data” from China, which has always denied the hypothesis of a laboratory leak.
The World Health Council, which sets out WHO policy, is holding an annual meeting in Geneva where members will discuss the next phase of the organisation’s research.
WSJ’s claims, in turn, have focused on the laboratory’s escape theory. The newspaper reported that a U.S. intelligence report that had not been released before said three researchers at the Wuhan lab became very ill in 2019 when they asked for hospital care. On Monday, the White House said it had “no means” to verify the report.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday that he still believes the disease has spread from animals to humans. “Many of us think it’s likely to be a natural event, as it was with Sars-Cov-1, which goes from an animal repository to a human one.”
However, he added: “But, we don’t know the answer to that 100 percent… [and] it is necessary to look and carry out an investigation “.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian denied the accuracy of the intelligence report and said staff at the Wuhan Virology Institute had not been infected before December 2019.
“What is the real goal for the US to continue to do what is called ‘laboratory escape theory’? Does it really matter if you want to divert the trace or attention of the origin of the virus?” He asked.
Additional report by Christian Shepherd in Beijing
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