3 years on since COVID 'pandemic', WHO chief says finding origins a 'moral imperative'

The World Health Organization (WHO) three years ago on 11 March 2020 declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. However, its origins still remain unknown, even though many reports claim it is China's Wuhan province from where the virus originated.

Marking three years into the COVID 'pandemic', WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that discovering the origins of COVID-19 is a moral imperative. In a tweet on Saturday, Tedros asserted that all hypotheses around the virs must be explored to help prevent future outbreaks.

"Understanding #COVID19’s origins and exploring all hypotheses remains:-a scientific imperative, to help us prevent future outbreaks-a moral imperative, for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with #LongCOVID," Tedros wrote.

A WHO-led team concluded in 2021 that the virus had likely been spread from bats to humans via another animal, though more investigation was required. But China claims that no more visits are required.

Since then, the WHO has established a scientific advisory group on dangerous pathogens, but it hasn't made any determinations about how the pandemic started since it claims that important pieces of information are lacking.

A US Energy Department report earlier said that the COVID pandemic was most likely brought on by an unintentional Chinese laboratory leak. This increased pressure on the WHO to provide an explanation. However, the department deemed its level of confidence in its assessment as “low,” people who read the report told the WSJ news portal.

However, Beijing has refuted the report completely and said that the "origins-tracing of SARS-CoV-2 is about science and should not be politicised."

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