(Dan Tri) – WHO believes that it is too early to rule out other hypotheses about the origin of the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic.
Director of WHO’s Emergencies Program Michael Ryan (Photo: Reuters).
`All hypotheses remain open,` WHO emergencies program director Michael Ryan told reporters at WHO headquarters in Geneva on July 27.
This is the first comment from a WHO leader after the prestigious Science magazine published two new studies by American scientists on the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first study analyzed the geographical aspect of Covid-19 cases discovered in December 2019, when China announced the epidemic.
The second study analyzed genetic data from the earliest cases to study the early evolution of the virus and concluded that the SARS-CoV-2 virus did not appear to have spread widely in the population before November 2019.
Accordingly, scientists believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus most likely originated from animals traded at the Wuhan market, then jumped to humans.
Mr. Ryan welcomed these two studies, but affirmed that it was too early to rule out other hypotheses.
Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s technical team in charge of Covid-19, said WHO experts had evaluated the studies and said `these are good analyses`.
`It’s really important to do more research in China, in Wuhan, in the markets in Wuhan` to learn more about where the animals sold in these markets come from, as well as learn about the people
She emphasized: `We need more information about what happened in the early stages of the epidemic, but unfortunately we still don’t have enough. We need more research in China and elsewhere to really
China announced the world’s first Covid-19 cases in December 2019.
