Firstpost
  • Home
  • Video Shows
    Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports
  • World
    US News
  • Explainers
  • News
    India Opinion Cricket Tech Entertainment Sports Health Photostories
  • Asia Cup 2025
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
Trending:
  • Charlie Kirk shot dead
  • Nepal protests
  • Russia-Poland tension
  • Israeli strikes in Qatar
  • Larry Ellison
  • Apple event
  • Sunjay Kapur inheritance row
fp-logo
Early report from COVID-19 origin probe due next week, to have 'unanimity' despite pressure
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter
Apple Incorporated Modi ji Justin Trudeau Trending

Sections

  • Home
  • Live TV
  • Videos
  • Shows
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Health
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • Web Stories
  • Business
  • Impact Shorts

Shows

  • Vantage
  • Firstpost America
  • Firstpost Africa
  • First Sports
  • Fast and Factual
  • Between The Lines
  • Flashback
  • Live TV

Events

  • Raisina Dialogue
  • Independence Day
  • Champions Trophy
  • Delhi Elections 2025
  • Budget 2025
  • US Elections 2024
  • Firstpost Defence Summit
  • Home
  • World
  • Early report from COVID-19 origin probe due next week, to have 'unanimity' despite pressure

Early report from COVID-19 origin probe due next week, to have 'unanimity' despite pressure

The Associated Press • March 18, 2021, 17:29:02 IST
Whatsapp Facebook Twitter

The expert team hopes that the 280-page report, complete with graphs, dates and annexes, will be ready for release next week.

Advertisement
Subscribe Join Us
Add as a preferred source on Google
Prefer
Firstpost
On
Google
Early report from COVID-19 origin probe due next week, to have 'unanimity' despite pressure

The head of a World Health Organization team working with Chinese colleagues to finish a long-awaited report into the origins of the coronavirus acknowledged its authors could face “pressures” but insisted the final product will have a unanimous green light from all of the team’s science-minded members. Peter Ben Embarek, an expert on food safety and diseases that jump from animals to humans, said in interviews on Wednesday and Thursday that the team hopes the report – now totaling some 280 pages and complete with graphs, dates and annexes – will be ready for release next week. The report is a first-phase study that is expected to be followed by a more in-depth look as part of guidelines set by Chinese officials and the WHO team. Ben Embarek, who led a 10-person international team of experts that visited China in January and February, acknowledged that political pressures have loomed large over the virus pandemic. “We are in the world that we live in,” he said. “It’s possible that there will be pressures from right to left.” “What we can guarantee is that everyone will be on board” and “unanimous” in their backing of the report once that the text is completed, Ben Embarek said. The “fine-tuning of the text” has centered on scientific issues, while some Chinese-English translation issues were “taking a lot of time,” he said. He said the report was being written by all of the experts and part of a “long and complex” process. China’s Global Times newspaper on Wednesday published an interview with Liang Wannian, the head of the Chinese side of the team, who pointed to political pressures that amounted to “huge disrespect to the work of our scientists.” Liang was quoted as saying some politicians and international media had “insisted on politicizing the scientific issue of tracing the source of COVID-19, regardless of scientific facts, for their own personal gain, arbitrarily misinterpreting the scientific findings and reports of our joint team.” He took pains to emphasize the spirit of cooperation among the scientists and said both sides had cooperated openly and fully throughout the month-long investigation, and that “results of this joint study in China are the consensus of Chinese and foreign experts.” Liang echoed the comments from Ben Embarek about the extended time to publish the report, saying the process required to present a complete and scientifically rigorous report “takes some time.” The team did not find cases of COVID-19 before 8 December 2019, he said. Ben Embarek cited the need to investigate the possible role in the pandemic of local trade of wild animal products from farms in and around southern China in 2019 and beyond to a market in the city of Wuhan, which could have been a way that the virus entered into a large city that was tied into global supply chains. “We don’t know yet the origins of the pandemic.” He said cold-chain transmission including through frozen food packaging was a “possible route” of spread, but that the issue requires further exploration. Liang promoted Chinese government claims of other sources of the pandemic saying that cold chain transmission “plays an important part in the origin and transmission of the epidemic.” The international team left open the possibility of the cold chain playing a role in the transmission. It took many months for the UN team to arrange a visit to China with Chinese authorities. Critics say the delay cost valuable time in efforts to unearth the origins of a pandemic, which has led to at least 2.6 million reported deaths. China’s government detained some doctors who sought to raise the alarm about the outbreak, which is believed to have originated in or near Wuhan in late 2019. WHO repeatedly praised the Chinese government’s early response, even though recordings of private meetings obtained by The Associated Press exposed how top officials at the U.N. health agency were frustrated at China’s lack of cooperation.

Tags
coronavirus Coronavirus Pandemic COVID 19 pandemic coronavirus origin COVId 19 origin WHO COVID 19 Probe WHO Probe WHO COVID 19 origin Probe
End of Article
Latest News
Find us on YouTube
Subscribe
End of Article

Impact Shorts

French MPs call for social media ban for under-15s, digital curfew for teenagers

French MPs call for social media ban for under-15s, digital curfew for teenagers

A French committee suggests banning social media for kids under 15 and a nighttime digital curfew for teens 15-18. The report cites concerns about TikTok's effects on minors. President Macron backs the ban, akin to Australia's proposed law.

More Impact Shorts

Top Stories

Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are 'worth it' to save Second Amendment

Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are 'worth it' to save Second Amendment

From governance to tourism, how Gen-Z protests have damaged Nepal

From governance to tourism, how Gen-Z protests have damaged Nepal

Did Russia deliberately send drones into Poland’s airspace?

Did Russia deliberately send drones into Poland’s airspace?

Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages: Qatar PM after Doha strike

Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages: Qatar PM after Doha strike

Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are 'worth it' to save Second Amendment

Charlie Kirk, shot dead in Utah, once said gun deaths are 'worth it' to save Second Amendment

From governance to tourism, how Gen-Z protests have damaged Nepal

From governance to tourism, how Gen-Z protests have damaged Nepal

Did Russia deliberately send drones into Poland’s airspace?

Did Russia deliberately send drones into Poland’s airspace?

Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages: Qatar PM after Doha strike

Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages: Qatar PM after Doha strike

Top Shows

Vantage Firstpost America Firstpost Africa First Sports

QUICK LINKS

  • Trump-Zelenskyy meeting
Latest News About Firstpost
Most Searched Categories
  • Web Stories
  • World
  • India
  • Explainers
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Cricket
  • Tech/Auto
  • Entertainment
  • IPL 2025
NETWORK18 SITES
  • News18
  • Money Control
  • CNBC TV18
  • Forbes India
  • Advertise with us
  • Sitemap
Firstpost Logo

is on YouTube

Subscribe Now

Copyright @ 2024. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved

About Us Contact Us Privacy Policy Cookie Policy Terms Of Use
Home Video Shorts Live TV