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In an open letter, 24 scientists and researchers from Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan said the study was tainted by politics.
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| The WHO-China joint study news conference at a hotel in Wuhan, Hubei province, China |
A joint China-World Health Organization (WHO) study into COVID-19 has provided no credible answers about how the pandemic began, and more rigorous investigations are required โ with or without Beijingโs involvement, a group of international scientists and researchers said on Wednesday.
The joint study, released last week, said the likeliest transmission route for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, involved bats and other wildlife in China and southeast Asia. It all but ruled out the possibility it had leaked from a laboratory.
In an open letter, 24 scientists and researchers from Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan said the study was tainted by politics.
โTheir starting point was, letโs have as much compromise as is required to get some minimal cooperation from China,โ said Jamie Metzl, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, who drafted the letter.
The letter said the studyโs conclusions were based on unpublished Chinese research, while critical records and biological samples โremain inaccessibleโ.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanon Ghebreyesus said last week China had withheld data.
Liang Wannian, Chinaโs senior COVID-19 expert, denied this and appeared to rule out any further joint investigations in China, saying the focus should shift to other countries.
Metzl said the world might have to โrevert to Plan Bโ and conduct an investigation โin the most systematic way possibleโ without Chinaโs involvement.
China has rejected allegations that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a research laboratory in Wuhan, the city where COVID-19 was first identified.
The joint China-WHO study said the lab leak was โextremely unlikelyโ, saying there was โno recordโ that any laboratory had kept SARS-CoV-2-related viruses. Tedros said more research was required to โreach more robust conclusionsโ.
Metzl said China should disclose information that would allow the lab hypothesis to be disproved.
โChina has databases of what viruses were being heldโฆ there are lab notes of the work that was being done,โ he said, โThere are all kinds of scientists who are actually doing the work and we donโt have access to any of those resources, or any of those people.โ
REUTERS
