The World Health Organisation informed that the next step in the search of the origins of COVID-19 will be the creation of a new advisory group. It will develop a global framework to study pathogens with pandemic potential.
WHO in a statement on August 12, 2021, said that the International Scientific Advisory Group for origins of Novel pathogens, or SAGO, will be a new advisory group for World Health Organisation.
The global health agency in July 2021 had proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of Coronavirus in China, including the audits of markets and laboratories in the city of Wuhan. Meanwhile, Beijing had rejected the proposal of WHO.
For #COVID19 virus origins, The International Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) will support the rapid undertaking of recommended studies outlined in the March 2021 report.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO)
August 12, 2021
Objective of new expert group by WHO |
The agency will be responsible for advising the global health agency on the development of a global framework to systematically study the emergence of the future emerging pathogens with pandemic potential.
The statement further added that for SARS-CoV-2, the group will support the rapid undertaking of the recommended studies that were outlined in the March 2021 report.
WHO calls countries to depoliticize the situation:
The World Health Organisation, in a recently released statement, has called all the governments to depoliticize the COVID-19 situation.
.@WHO calls for all governments to depoliticize the situation and cooperate to accelerate the #COVID19 origins studies, and importantly to work together to develop a common framework for future emerging pathogens of pandemic potential.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros)
August 12, 2021
The statement read that in order to move forward, WHO calls all the governments to depoliticize the situation and cooperate to accelerate the origin studies of COVID-19 and most importantly work together to develop a common framework for the future emerging pathogens of pandemic potential.
The global health agency also expressed hope that all the countries globally, including China, must collaborate and put in place the conditions for more missions to be sent to Wuhan to duly probe the ‘lab hypothesis’.
Probe into COVID-19 origin: What happened till now?The first World Health Organisation fact-finding mission to China’s Wuhan had released its report in March 2021. Wuhan in China was the first city in the world where the first COVID-19 outbreak was reported in late 2019. A WHO-led team of scientists and researchers had also struggled to get a clear picture of what research China was conducting beforehand. The team faced constraints during its visit to China and also had little power to conduct thorough and impartial research. Ultimately there was no conclusion regarding the probe into COVID-19 origin in China. |
Background:
The World Health Organisation had declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
According to John Hopkins University, to date, more than 205 million people have been infected with the infection worldwide, and more than 4.3 million died.