The World Health Organization has proposed a new team to conduct a second investigation that definitively clarifies the origin of the spread of Covid-19, after the controversies that accompanied the first investigation. According to reports from the WHO, out of 700 candidates, 26 experts were selected in subjects ranging from epidemiology to biosecurity. These include Marion Koopmans of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, Christian Drosten of the Charite Virology Institute in Berlin, and Yungui Yang, deputy director of the Beijing Institute of Genomics.
“Understanding where new pathogens come from is essential to prevent future epidemics with epidemic and pandemic potential and requires a wide range of skills,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement, announcing the institution. of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (Sago).
A joint WHO-China mission conducted earlier this year found that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus likely spread from bats to humans via another animal. Although the team considered a leak of the virus from the lab the least likely hypothesis, the WHO director asked for more research. US President Joe Biden has criticized China for hindering efforts to understand how Covid-19 originated, allegations that Beijing has always rejected.