UK joins US & India in seeking new WHO look into COVID origin in China; wants 'phase 2'

As questions continue to be raised over the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States of America and Britain have demanded the World Health Organization (WHO) to take a deeper look into the possible origins of COVID-19, including a new visit to China where the first human infections were detected. The demand to probe COVID-19 origin intensified after an undisclosed and controversial Wall Street report propelled conspiracies claiming three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care after they fell sick in November 2019. This was a month prior to Beijing's opening report of COVID-like symptoms in a patient.

Britain joins USA's demand to probe COVID-19 origin at WHO

On Thursday, the US diplomatic mission in Geneva issued a statement saying the first phase of the study was insufficient and inconclusive and called for a timely, transparent, evidence-based, and expert-led Phase 2 study, including in the People's Republic of China. The statement coming in the middle of the WHO's annual assembly in Geneva demanded access for independent experts to complete, original data and samples relevant to the source of the virus and early stages of the outbreak.

Also, Thursday, the British ambassador in Geneva, Simon Manley, said the first phase study was always meant to be the beginning of the process, not the end. We call for a timely, transparent, evidence-based, and expert-led phase two study, including in the People's Republic of China, as recommended by the experts' report, he said.

WHO and Chinese experts issued the first report in March that laid out four hypotheses about how the pandemic emerged. The joint team said the most likely scenario was that the coronavirus jumped into people from bats via an intermediary animal, and the prospect that it erupted from a laboratory was deemed extremely unlikely.

After the first report was released, the WHO chief acknowledged that further studies were needed on issues like early detection of cases and clusters, and the possible roles of animal markets, transmission through the food chain, and the lab-incident hypothesis, Jasarevic noted.

Notably, Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have promoted the theory that the virus emerged from a laboratory accident rather than naturally through human contact with an infected animal in Wuhan, China.

Joe Biden Says He'll Make COVID Origin Report Public

President Joe Biden on Thursday headed to Cleveland to give remarks on the economy and promote his massive $1.7 trillion infrastructure proposals. During the event, Biden also commented on the ongoing demand to probe the COVID-19 origin in China. Biden said he aims to release to the public the 90-day report he commissioned from U.S. intelligence agencies into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Asked if he would make the report public once it's completed, Biden responded, "Yes, unless there is something I am unaware of."

After months of minimizing the possibility the coronavirus emerged from a lab accident, Biden's administration is responding to U.S. and world pressure for China to be more open about the outbreak. Biden directed U.S. national laboratories to assist with the investigation and called on China to cooperate.

China Rebuts US' COVID Origin Probe Push

After the USA's continuous demand for the second phase of the COVID origin probe, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Wednesday, demanded a WHO inquiry into an unexplained respiratory illness in July 2019 at Fort Detrick base. China has repeatedly denied that COVID-19 originated at either the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the Wuhan wet markets. This rebuttal comes amid growing calls for a transparent probe into COVID origins at Wuhan.

(Story Inputs: AP)

(Image Credits: AP)