"Global Health" calls for more study

An American report reveals the illness of two workers in the Wuhan plant before the emergence of "Corona" ... and China denies

Chinese security personnel stand outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Reuters

The American Wall Street Journal, citing a previously undisclosed US intelligence report, reported that three researchers from the Chinese Wuhan Institute of Virology sought medical care in November 2019, a month before China revealed the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. The newspaper said that the report may reinforce calls for a broader investigation into whether the virus that causes "Covid-19" had leaked from the laboratory, while China denied the report's authenticity.

Yesterday, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian, said: “It is not at all true that three employees of the Wuhan Institute of Virology have fallen ill. The United States continues to promote the theory of leaking the virus from the laboratory .. Is it really interested in tracking the source, or is it trying to dismiss Attention? ”

In response to a question about the intelligence report, WHO spokesman Tariq Yasarevich said in an e-mail to "Reuters" that the organization's technical teams are now taking decisions regarding next steps.

He added that more study is needed on the role of trade in animals as well as hypotheses for laboratory leakage.

An official at the US National Security Council said that President Joe Biden's administration still had "serious questions about the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, including its origin in the People's Republic of China," and explained that the US government is working with the World Health Organization and other member states to support the assessment. Conducted by experts in the origins of the pandemic "far from interference or politicization."

She added: "We will not issue statements that precede an ongoing study of the World Health Organization on the source of the virus, but we were clear that technically sound and credible theories must be evaluated by international experts comprehensively."

The "Wall Street Journal" said that current and former officials familiar with the report on researchers at the Wuhan Laboratory expressed many views about the strength of the evidence supporting the report, and one of them, whose name has not been revealed, confirmed that the report needs "more investigation and additional evidence." .

Last March, the United States, Norway, Canada, Britain and other countries expressed their concerns about the study of the origins of "Covid-19" led by the World Health Organization, and called for further investigations and to allow full access to everyone involved, whether humans or animals, and other data on the early stages. For outbreaks.

A source familiar with the matter said that Washington is keen to ensure increased cooperation and transparency from China, and the Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

For its part, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that a team led by the World Health Organization concluded that laboratory infusion is highly unlikely after a visit to the Virology Institute last February. The ministry added in response to a request from the newspaper for comment: “The United States continues to promote the theory of laboratory leakage, is it Really interested in tracing the source, or is she trying to divert attention? ”

The administration of former US President Donald Trump said that it suspects that the virus may have leaked from a Chinese laboratory, which Beijing denies. Reuters reported earlier that China refused to provide draft data on the initial cases of "Covid-19" to the team that He is led by the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the investigators on the team, which may complicate efforts to understand how the outbreak began.

In addition, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced that the "Covid-19" epidemic has caused the death of 115 thousand health and care employees since the outbreak of the epidemic.

Ghebreyesus renewed during the organization's general assembly yesterday, his warnings that the world will not be safe from the threat of "Corona" and whatever the level of vaccination in any country before controlling the virus everywhere and even the last country, and warned that the changes that occur to the virus that are Known as mutations, they may return the confrontation to zero.

He said that the Kovacs facility set up by the organization to deliver vaccines to low and middle-income countries does not have enough vaccines, and called on countries that have enough vaccines to share them with the international facility, and called for support for the vaccination initiative presented before the World Health Assembly to achieve its goal of vaccinating up to 10 % Of the world's population by next September and 30% by the end of the year, and he also urged countries to support the India and South Africa initiative in the World Trade Organization, which calls for the assignment of intellectual property rights in order to allow the manufacture and production of vaccines in the largest possible number of countries, and stressed that the world He is still in a fragile position in front of "Corona".

• Ghebreyesus confirms that the changes that occur to the virus may bring the confrontation back to point zero.

• 115 thousand health workers died from "Corona" around the world.

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