February 6 Maria Van Kelkehofer, technical director of the World Health Organization’s health emergency project, said on the 5th that many national research institutions have found COVID-19 in human and environmental samples retained before December 2019, and WHO is actively following up on this.
to understand whether further cooperation with relevant researchers can be carried out in follow-up.
At present, international experts of the China-WHO Joint Expert Group on Coronavirus Traceability have carried out on-site inspection with Chinese experts in Wuhan, and have carried out many rounds of scientific, professional and frank exchanges on scientific issues of common concern, which has made a good start for mankind to explore the origin of the virus and eventually eliminate it.
However, as Michael Ryan, head of the WHO Health Emergency Project, said, the problem of virus traceability is like a huge “jigsaw puzzle”, and the work of the expert group in Wuhan is only some of the small plates.
In addition to Wuhan, the WHO expert group should also work in other parts of the world where early viruses may exist, so that it is possible to comprehensively, objectively and scientifically map the spread of the virus.
Historical experience tells us that many pandemic were not originally reported at the place of origin.
For example, although the flu that caused the global pandemic a hundred years ago was called the “Spanish Flu”, some later traceability studies showed that the first infected person of the pandemic was probably not in Spain, but a soldier from a Kansas barracks in the United States.
One of the characteristics of an pandemic is that it is not bound by national boundaries and it is difficult to determine its origin in the first place.
The most scientific way is to find as many clues as possible about the origin of the virus and expand the research of virus tracking in order to obtain accurate information.
Since entering 2021, WHO has made a positive statement on this many occasions.
Michael Ryan has made it clear that WHO will go to any country and region to carry out virus traceability research according to the needs of Member States.
It should be said that this is a scientific attitude and a responsible attitude.
Virus traceability is a complex scientific issue involving many countries and places, and it should be carried out in cooperation with scientists around the world.
According to the report, research by the National Cancer Institute in Milan, Italy, shows that the novel coronavirus has been spreading in Italy since September 2019; research institutions in Brazil, the United States, France and other countries have found that the novel coronavirus may exist in these countries in the second half of 2019.
The WHO has said that the source of the novel coronavirus should not be “conclusive before evidence”.
The correct way to trace the virus is to treat all evidence and clues equally, put all assumptions about the traceability of the virus on the table and carefully study it, and investigate in as many countries and regions as possible in a scientific manner.
Only by following science can we defeat the virus, and only when the international community unites can we finally defeat the pandemic.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, China has always maintained close communication and cooperation with the WHO on the traceability of the global virus in an open and transparent attitude, reflecting a high spirit of international cooperation.
In the face of the virus that is still raging and the truth about the origin of the virus that has not yet been unveiled, all countries in the world should join hands to adopt a positive, scientific and cooperative attitude on the issue of traceability, and shoulder their due responsibilities and obligations for international anti-pandemic cooperation and the construction of a human health community.
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