A new scientific group would provide WHO with an independent analysis and guidance on the next steps of the probe.
The World Health Organization has called for health experts to join a new advisory group it is forming, in part to address the agency’s intense attempts to investigate how the coronavirus pandemic began.
In a statement on Friday, the United Nations health agency said the new scientific group would provide WHO with an independent analysis of the work done so far to determine the origins of COVID-19 and advise the agency on next necessary steps.
Experts will also provide guidance on critical issues about the potential emergence of other viruses capable of triggering outbreaks, such as MERS and Ebola.
The WHO said it is looking for up to 25 officials with adequate experience to apply for membership in its new scientific advisory group before 10 September.
In March, a WHO-led team of international experts issued a preliminary report that it considered “extremely unlikely” that the origins of COVID-19 were related to a laboratory.
While scientists believe the virus is very likely to have jumped into humans from animals, the theory involved in a lab has gained momentum in recent months, with an intelligence review ordered by the president of the United States. United, Joe Biden, to examine the possibility.
Critics have criticized the WHO’s initial assessment, saying it was a flawed effort and that all team members sent to China needed the Chinese government’s approval, as did the report by the WHO.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged last month that it was “premature” to rule out the theory of laboratory leaks, calling laboratory accidents “common”.
In a Danish documentary released earlier this month, the WHO team leader said during a trip to China that he was concerned about safety standards at a facility near where the first ones were detected. human cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan city. the WHO.
Numerous health experts and scientists have called for an independent investigation to be conducted beyond the WHO, noting that the agency has no authority to force countries, including China, to cooperate.
According to the mandate issued on Friday, the new WHO expert group will also be bound by certain rules of confidentiality, similar to those in force for many other expert groups in the agency.
The guidelines of the members of the state shall not speak on behalf of the WHO or the group with any third party, that internal deliberations should be treated as “strictly confidential” and should not cite or use any documents outside the competence of the group.
The WHO will maintain full control over the reports, including whether or not they will be published.