India backs WHO move for new expert group to probe origins of Covid-19 pandemic

Responding to WHO’s announcement, China warned against any “political manipulation” of the renewed probe into the origins of Covid-19 but said it would support the investigation. The Coronavirus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, triggering the worst pandemic in a century.

India on Thursday backed the World Health Organization (WHO)’s decision to create an expert group to examine the origins of new pathogens, including the Coronavirus that causes Covid-19, and said all countries should cooperate with the probe.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the launch of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) at a news briefing on Wednesday. (REUTERS PHOTO.)

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the launch of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) at a news briefing on Wednesday, and Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies programme, said this represented the “last chance” to determine the origins of SARS-CoV-2.

India has consistently backed all moves by WHO to establish the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, and called on all stakeholders, including China, to cooperate with such efforts. External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi reiterated this position when he was asked about the new expert group at a regular news briefing on Thursday.

“Let me just reiterate what we have stated till now – we have our interest in further studies and data on this issue of the origin [of the Coronavirus] and the need for understanding and cooperation by all concerned,” he said, without naming China.

The Indian side, he said, was gathering details of what the new move by WHO would entail.

Raman Gangakhedkar, the Dr CG Pandit National Chair at the Indian Council of Medical Research in India, and Yungui Yang of the Beijing Institute of Genomics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are among the 26 members of SAGO.

Responding to WHO’s announcement, China warned against any “political manipulation” of the renewed probe into the origins of Covid-19 but said it would support the investigation.

The Coronavirus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, triggering the worst pandemic in a century.

Asked about the new probe, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said it should be conducted in the “spirit of science” and not used as a political tool. The result of the previous study on the matter should be respected, he added.

“China will continue to support and participate in international Coronavirus origins -tracing, yet opposes any form of political manipulation on the issue,” Zhao told a news briefing in Beijing.

He added, “China has always maintained that tracing of virus origins is a serious and complex scientific issue and that research should be conducted by scientists in cooperation.”

Tedros said SAGO will advise WHO on developing a global framework to guide studies into “origins of emerging and re-emerging pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential, including SARS-CoV-2”. He said that while SARS-CoV-2 is the latest virus to spark a pandemic, “it will not be the last”.

Ryan noted the current pandemic “has stopped our whole world” and said the expert group “may be our last chance to understand the origins of this virus in a...collective and mutually responsible way”. He urged everyone, including countries, to create space for discussions on the issue.

Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said the expert group is expected to call for further studies in China by international missions.

“I anticipate that the SAGO in its discussions about the urgent next steps for understanding the origins of the current pandemic will recommend further studies in China and potentially elsewhere...We very much hope that there will be further missions to China and other countries,” she said.

The 26 members of SAGO were selected from more than 700 applications following a global call. Tedros said they were chosen for their world-class expertise and experience in a range of disciplines, and geographic and gender diversity. There will be a two-week public consultation period for WHO to receive feedback on the proposed members.

China has dismissed theories that the Coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan and has said no more visits by international experts are needed. A WHO-led team spent four weeks in and around Wuhan this year with Chinese scientists, and said in a joint report in March that the Coronavirus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, but further research was needed.

Tedros has said this investigation was hampered by a dearth of raw data pertaining to the first days of the Covid-19 outbreak and called for laboratory audits.

Van Kerkhove said “more than three dozen recommended studies” must still be carried out to determine how the Coronavirus crossed from animal species to humans. Reported Chinese testing for antibodies in Wuhan residents in 2019 will be “absolutely critical” to understanding the virus’s origins, she said.

WHO, in an editorial in Science, said detailed investigations of the earliest known and suspected cases in China prior to December 2019 are still needed, including analyses of stored blood samples from 2019 in Wuhan and retrospective searches of hospital and mortality data for earlier cases. Labs in the area where the first reports of human infections emerged in Wuhan must be a focus, as ruling out an accident requires sufficient evidence, it said.