WHO again asks China for 'full access' to determine Covid's origins: Report

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged China to offer more information on the origins of coronavirus. He told the Financial Times on Sunday (September 17) that the health agency is ready to send a second team to probe the matter.

"We're pressing China to give full access, and we are asking countries to raise it during their bilateral meetings — to urge Beijing to cooperate," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the newspaper.

Ever since the virus spread was declared a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020, several claims and counterclaims have been made over its origin. Many assumed that it spread in a live animal market before spreading throughout the world.

The outbreak became a pandemic in just a few weeks that year in March, and caused havoc on mankind, killing millions of people and leaving many more reeling with long-Covid.

The virus, to some extent, has subsided and now the health authorities and pharmaceutical companies around the world are racing to update vaccines to battle newer developing coronavirus types.

Ghebreyesus has long pressed China to provide information concerning the origins of COVID-19, claiming that until this happens, all hypotheses remain open.

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CIA and Covid controversy

Allegations have been made against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in which several of their analysts were paid to change their views on the origins of Covid.

As quoted by Sky News, Stanford University Professor Dr Jayanta Bhattacharya said that the entire world needs "absolute transparency" on the CIA Covid origins allegations.

Bhattacharya said: "What was the CIA’s role – what role did they have and why was there any interest in covering up that fact? If these allegations are correct, that the CIA actually paid off its own analyst to not tell the public or at least not even tell the president that the CIA thought that the virus was as a result of laboratory work – it’s just shocking."

"This is something the entire world deserves to know; we need absolute transparency in this. This is not a question of national security anymore – this is a question of human rights – it’s a question of honesty," Bhattacharya added.

(With inputs from agencies)

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