A guard posted outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology on February 3, 2021. Koki Kataoka / The Yomiuri Shimbun via AFP
The head of the World Health Organization denied on Wednesday any abandonment of the investigations.
Will we ever know where the Covid-19 pandemic really started, which paralyzed the world for months, officially causing the death of 7 million people? Hope is dwindling, according to an article published on February 14 in Nature. The scientific journal claims that the World Health Organization (WHO) « quietly shelved the second phase of its long-awaited scientific investigation into the origins of the pandemic, citing difficulties in conducting crucial studies in China ». An assertion that the UN agency rejects in its entirety.
Let’s go back to the « phase 1 » of this investigation. In January 2021, after an embarrassing imbroglio over a visa story, a team of international researchers mandated by the WHO was able, under escort, to travel to Wuhan, where Sars-CoV-2 had been officially identified for the first time. in December 2019. They had had access to the market, considered at the time as the epicenter of the epidemic, to the hospital which had seen the first patients arrive, and to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the high security laboratory which works on coronaviruses. However, the scientists were unable to carry out their own investigations on site and had no access to the laboratory’s databases. Two months later, and despite the glaring lack of evidence, their report almost dismissed the thesis of the laboratory leak. WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had to put it back on the table himself.
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Three years later, no international team has set foot in Wuhan and the mystery remains. “Different hypotheses remain valid: a zoonotic origin from viruses circulating in bats (whether or not passing through intermediate hosts) ; an infection in a cave associated or not with a research campaign ; or an infection by a virus stored, or even genetically manipulated, in a laboratory in Wuhan », summarizes Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo, biologist at the Jacques Monod Institute. None of these avenues can be definitively ruled out.
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Returning from China in 2021, the team of international experts had laid the foundations for a « phase 2 » aimed at continuing research on the first cases of Covid in China and elsewhere, in particular by taking samples from bats in the vicinity or from animal farms that supplied the Wuhan market. But « there is no phase two »reportedly told Nature Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO epidemiologist.
« We did not put our projects in the bottom of a drawer »
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO epidemiologist
Contacted by Le Figarothe UN agency ensures however that this article is « inaccurate and misleading » : the misunderstanding comes from the use of the expression “phase 2”, used at the time by the team of independent experts, but which the WHO claims never to have endorsed… « Which doesn’t mean we gave up ! » « We always said : to advance knowledge, we had and still need studies – and for that we need China to give us access to data and to undertake these studies in a transparent way, do we explain within the agency. Without it, we cannot advance knowledge, whether called “phase 2”, “additional studies” Or other. » « We did not put our projects in the bottom of a drawer »for her part hammered Maria Van Kerkhove at a press conference on Wednesday, while acknowledging that “the more time passes, the more difficult it will be to understand what happened”.
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After the publication of the experts’ report in 2021, the WHO set up a new advisory group called “Sago”, to investigate both the origin of Covid and how to avoid future pandemics. A complex, plural mission, risking to put the original investigation in the background? Certain members of the team sent to China were in any case worried about the delays caused by the establishment of this new group. The WHO denies it. The famous « phase 2, that is Sago », Estime Maria Van Kerkhove. Ce groupe d’experts de haut rang « is reviewing any new evidence that may emerge while continuing to request access from China, and the data »we still assure the WHO.
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But they are not mandated to go there. « It is the responsibility of States to investigate on their territory »not at the WHO, recalled Michael Ryan, in charge of the management of health emergencies. « If we wanted to make progress in this area, the Member States would have to hand over to the WHO the powers and entrust it with the prerogatives allowing it to carry out investigative missions in complete independence. This is not the case today »summarizes Antoine Flahault, epidemiologist and director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva.
On Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus assured that he had recently sent an official email to a senior Chinese official to once again request Beijing’s collaboration. The boss of the WHO reminded us: the investigation into the origins is crucial to prevent future pandemics, but “ it is also a moral duty : it is essential to know why we lost our loved ones ».