WHO says probe into COVID-19 virus origin still ongoing
FILE PHOTO: A test tube labelled \"COVID-19 Test Positive\" and a vial labelled \"VACCINE Coronavirus COVID-19\" are seen in this illustration taken December 11, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
WHO says probe into COVID-19 virus origin still ongoing
The World Health Organization said on Friday that efforts to determine the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, are still ongoing and incomplete.
The WHO Scientific Advisory Group reported progress in understanding COVID-19's origins but noted that critical information required to fully assess all hypotheses remains unavailable.
The agency said it had requested China share hundreds of genetic sequences from COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic, detailed information on animals sold at Wuhan markets, and details on research and biosafety conditions at Wuhan laboratories.
WHO added that China has not yet shared the information.
China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. REUTERS
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CNA
6 hours ago
- CNA
WHO says all Covid-19 origin theories still open, after inconclusive study
GENEVA: All hypotheses on how the Covid-19 pandemic began remain open, the World Health Organization said on Friday (Jun 27), following an inconclusive four-year investigation that was hamstrung by crucial information being withheld. The global catastrophe killed an estimated 20 million people, according to the WHO, while shredding economies, crippling health systems and turning people's lives upside-down. The first cases were detected in Wuhan in China in late 2019, and understanding where the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid came from is key to preventing future pandemics. However, a lengthy investigation launched by the UN's health agency said that pending further data, the origin of Covid and how it first spread remains elusive. "As things stand, all hypotheses must remain on the table, including zoonotic spillover and lab leak," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference, referring to the two main hypotheses as to how the pandemic began. EXPERT INVESTIGATION An initial WHO-Chinese joint report in March 2021 concluded that the virus most likely jumped from bats to humans via an intermediate animal. It deemed a leak from Wuhan's virology laboratories, known for their research on coronaviruses, to be "extremely unlikely". However, that investigation faced harsh criticism for lacking transparency and access, and for not seriously evaluating the lab-leak theory. Tedros launched another investigation, setting up the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), comprising 27 international experts, in July 2021. Their 78-page report was published on Friday. It said the weight of available evidence suggests a spillover from animals, either directly from bats, or through an intermediate host. However, it could not conclude with certainty where and when this happened, nor whether the Wuhan wet market was where the virus first spilled over into humans. That said, the market "appears to be the location for amplification of infection in humans", leading to widespread transmission. "Evidence for widespread infections or cases in any other countries prior to December 2019 is lacking," it added. While spillover was the best supported theory on the evidence currently available, "until further requests for information are met, or more scientific data becomes available, the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it entered the human population will remain inconclusive," SAGO chair Marietjie Venter said at the press conference. Lab leak theories "could not be investigated or excluded", she said, because much of the needed information had not been made available. The experts requested unpublished information from other countries, notably Germany and the United States, but without success, she said. Earlier this week, one SAGO member resigned and three others asked for their names to be removed from the report. CRUCIAL QUESTION "Over the past five years, we have learned a lot about Covid-19 but there is one crucial question about the pandemic that we have not yet answered, how it started," Tedros said. "Despite our repeated requests, China has not provided hundreds of viral sequences from individuals with Covid-19 early in the pandemic, more detailed information on animals sold at markets in Wuhan, and information on work done and biosafety conditions at laboratories in Wuhan," he said. He said WHO has requested access to intelligence reports by governments around the world on the origins of Covid-19. US President Donald Trump's administration has officially embraced the lab leak theory. MORAL IMPERATIVE Tedros said finding out how Covid-19 started was a moral imperative for those who lost their lives in the pandemic and to prevent further outbreaks. He said the virus was continuing to evolve, take lives and leave people suffering with post-Covid conditions, or so-called long Covid. Tedros said the WHO is appealing to countries with information about the origins of Covid-19 to share information.

Straits Times
8 hours ago
- Straits Times
WHO says probe into COVID-19 virus origin still ongoing
FILE PHOTO: A test tube labelled \"COVID-19 Test Positive\" and a vial labelled \"VACCINE Coronavirus COVID-19\" are seen in this illustration taken December 11, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo WHO says probe into COVID-19 virus origin still ongoing The World Health Organization said on Friday that efforts to determine the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, are still ongoing and incomplete. The WHO Scientific Advisory Group reported progress in understanding COVID-19's origins but noted that critical information required to fully assess all hypotheses remains unavailable. The agency said it had requested China share hundreds of genetic sequences from COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic, detailed information on animals sold at Wuhan markets, and details on research and biosafety conditions at Wuhan laboratories. WHO added that China has not yet shared the information. China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Straits Times
8 hours ago
- Straits Times
Chile observatory captures the universe with 3,200-megapixel camera
The open star cluster Messier 21 is seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 12, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS Globular cluster NGC 6544 is seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 12, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS The Trifid Nebula is seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 12, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS Distant galaxies are seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 18, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS The Trifid and Lagoon Nebulae are seen in an image produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on Pachon Hill, Coquimbo Region, Chile June 12, 2025. RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Handout via REUTERS SANTIAGO - Chile's Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which boasts the world's largest digital camera, has begun displaying its first images of the cosmos, allowing astronomers to figure out how the solar system formed and even whether an asteroid poses a threat to Earth. Located on Pachon Hill in the northern region of Coquimbo, the 8.4-meter (27-1/2-foot) telescope has a 3,200-megapixel camera feeding a powerful data processing system. "It's really going to change and challenge the way people work with their data," said William O'Mullane, a project manager focused on data at Vera Rubin. The observatory detected over 2,100 previously unseen asteroids in 10 hours of observations, focusing on a small area of the visible sky. Its ground-based and space-based peers discover in total some 20,000 asteroids a year. O'Mullane said the observatory would allow astronomers to collect huge amounts of data quickly and make unexpected finds. "Rather than the usual couple of observations and writing an (academic) paper. No, I'll give you a million galaxies. I'll give you a million stars or a billion even, because we have them: 20 billion galaxy measurements," he said. The center is named after American astronomer Vera C. Rubin, a pioneer in finding conclusive evidence of the existence of large amounts of invisible material known as dark matter. Each night, Rubin will take some 1,000 images of the southern hemisphere sky, letting it cover the entire southern sky every three or four nights. The darkest skies above the arid Atacama Desert make Chile one of the best places worldwide for astronomical observation. "The number of alerts the telescope will send every night is equivalent to the inboxes of 83,000 people. It's impossible for someone to look at that one by one," said astrophysicist Francisco Foster. "We're going to have to use artificial intelligence tools." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.