The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged China to share information on the first cases of Covid-19 and said it needed “all the data” to investigate the theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory. A new investigation that China has already rejected.
“In order to address the ‘laboratory hypothesis’, it is important to have access to all data and consider best scientific practices and look at the mechanisms that the WHO has already established,” the health agency said. UN in a statement.
The WHO called for depoliticization of research into the origin of this pandemic, which has killed at least 4.3 million people and plunged the global economy since the detection of its first cases in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December. of 2019.
The UN agency sent an international team of experts to Wuhan earlier this year, who, in an initial phase of investigation, concluded that the virus had probably passed from bats to humans through an intermediate animal.
Peter Embarek, head of the WHO team and other agencies that visited Wuhan in early 2021 to study the origin of the coronavirus, noted in statements released today by Danish TV2 that Covid-19 it could have started after a researcher from a laboratory in this Chinese city became infected with a bat.
“Infection of an employee when taking samples is one of the likely hypotheses,” Embarek noted in the interview, although he clarified that the WHO mission was unable to find direct evidence to support this theory.
The report of the first WHO mission in Wuhan, published in April, pointed out 4:00 possible theories about the origin of Covid-19, although it noted that the origin in a laboratory accident it was the least likely.
Embarek also denounced the difficulties of his team in discussing this theory with Chinese scientists and that they were barely able to consult documentation in this regard.
In a statement on the next phase of the study, the WHO indicated that it was “of vital importance” to know how the pandemic began. A new investigation that China has already rejected. “We oppose the politicization of the search for origins (…) and the abandonment of the joint report,” said Ma Zhaoxu, deputy foreign minister. . “We support science-based research,” he added.
“The next series of studies will include an additional examination of the raw data from the first cases” in 2019, the WHO said in a statement on the progress of the investigation. “Access to data is of critical importance (…) and should not be politicized in any way,” he insisted.
The laboratory theory was promoted by former US President Donald Trump, but his successor Joe Biden has also been in favor of following this line of research.
The WHO’s request last month to include audits in Wuhan laboratories in the second phase of the study raised blisters in Beijing. Deputy Health Minister Zeng Yixin said the plan was a “disrespect to common sense and an arrogance towards science.”
The WHO has said it is working with different countries that reported the detection of coronavirus in biological samples stored in 2019.
Italy, for example, facilitated an independent evaluation by international laboratories, which included new pre-pandemic blood sample tests, he explained.
“Sharing raw data and giving permission for the new sample analysis … is no different than what we encourage all countries, including China, to support so that we can move forward in the studies of origins quickly and effectively,” he said. say the UN agency.
Modern vaccine
Moderna has announced the release of new data on the durability of its coronavirus vaccine in the generation of neutralizing antibodies against the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Iota variants.
According to the study, published in the journal Science, most vaccines maintained binding and functional antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 variants for the six months following the second dose.
“We are pleased with these new data showing that people vaccinated with two doses of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine maintained antibodies for six months, even against worrying variants such as the Delta variant. Together with our partners, we are committed to generate data on the vaccine and share it, which supports the lasting 93% efficacy observed with the vaccine over six months. health regulators on how and when to administer additional booster doses, ”noted the company’s executive director, Stéphane Bancel.
In this study several assays were used and it was shown that, after two doses of the vaccine, binding and neutralizing antibodies were generated against the ancestral strain of virus and against the variants of interest, Alpha, Beta, Gamma , Delta, Epsilon and Iota.
Although some decrease in antibody levels was observed over time, most participants had detectable neutralizing antibody titers six months after the end of the primary series.
A trend toward lower levels of antibodies against SARSCoV-2 variants was observed in older individuals on day 209 (up to six months). However, the differences were small and there was an overlap between the age groups. “It is important to note that many individuals in the older group retained neutralizing activity against the variants six months after the second dose of the vaccine,” points out Moderna.