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Five years after the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, the World Health Organization (WHO) has renewed its call for transparency and data sharing from China to uncover the virus’s origins.
Some shit you should know before you read: Back in late 2019, Chinese authorities officially notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about a cluster of “viral pneumonia” cases in Wuhan, marking the beginning of what would become the COVID-19 pandemic. However, evidence suggests that cases were likely circulating weeks earlier, raising questions about the timeliness and transparency of China’s initial response. Despite the urgent need for investigation, China delayed granting WHO experts access to Wuhan until January 2021, significantly hindering efforts to trace the virus’s origins. Throughout this period, Chinese officials suppressed critical early data and access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which some believe is where the virus originated from. In response to international criticism, Beijing accused the WHO and Western nations of politicizing the origin-tracing process, dismissing demands for greater cooperation as attempts to unfairly blame China for the global crisis.
What’s going on now: In an end-of-the-year statement, WHO renewed its call for China to provide full transparency and unrestricted access to critical data regarding the origins of COVID-19. The organization specifically called on China to release original case records, genetic sequences from early patients, and environmental samples from the Huanan Seafood Market. Additionally, the WHO requested detailed test results from market workers and other related data that could shed light on how the virus crossed to humans.
Officials also expressed frustration with the significant gaps in the scientific understanding of COVID-19 due to China’s previous refusals to provide raw data or allow continued investigations.
This all comes as many theories about the origins of COVID-19 have circulated since the pandemic began. The dominant hypothesis among scientists is that the virus originated in animals, likely bats, and was transmitted to humans through an intermediate host, possibly at a wet market in Wuhan. Another widely discussed theory is the possibility of a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which studied coronaviruses. Some have also speculated that COVID-19 could have been intentionally engineered as a bioweapon, though US officials have previously dismissed this as unlikely due to the virus’s natural genetic features.
At the present moment, China has not commented.
