The World Health Organization (WHO) called on China to share information on how COVID-19 emerged five years ago.
The coronavirus has killed millions of people, locked billions in their homes, paralyzed economies and destroyed systems.
“We continue to call on China to improve its knowledge so that we can perceive the origins of COVID-19. This is an ethical and clinical imperative,” the WHO said in a statement.
“Without transparency, exchange and cooperation between countries, the world will adequately save itself and prepare for epidemics and pandemics in the long term. “
The WHO recounted how on December 31, 2019, its local office in China won a lawsuit from the health government in the central city of Wuhan due to cases of “viral pneumonia. “
“In the weeks, months and years that unfolded after that, COVID-19 came to shape our lives and our world,” the UN health agency said.
“As we mark this milestone, let us take a moment to honor the lives replaced and lost, recognize those suffering from COVID-19 and Long COVID, express our gratitude to the fitness staff who have sacrificed so much to care for us, and Dedicate ourselves to learning from COVID-19. ” 19 to build a more fit future.
Beijing hoped on Tuesday to have shared about the coronavirus “without hiding anything. “
“Five years ago. . . China promptly shared data on the outbreak and the viral gene pool with the WHO and the foreign community. Without hiding anything, we shared our experience in prevention and treatment, thus making a massive contribution to the work. of the foreign community in the fight against the pandemic,” said Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to the WHO, more than 760 million cases of COVID-19 and 6. 9 million deaths have been recorded worldwide.
In mid-2023, it declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency but said the disease should be a permanent reminder of the potential for new viruses to emerge with devastating consequences.
Data from the early days of the pandemic was uploaded by Chinese scientists to an international database in early 2023, a few months after China dismantled all its COVID-19 restrictions and reopened its borders to the rest of the world.
The data showed DNA from multiple animal species – including raccoon dogs – was present in environmental samples that tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID, suggesting they were “the most likely conduits” of the disease, according to a team of international researchers.
In 2021, a WHO-led team spent weeks in and around Wuhan, where the first cases were detected, and said the virus was most likely transmitted from bats to humans via “another animal,” but that additional studies were needed.
China said that no further visits were necessary and that the first instances would take place in other countries.
Earlier this month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed the question of whether the world is better prepared for the next pandemic than for COVID-19.
“It’s yes and no,” he said at a news conference. “If the next pandemic occurred now, the world would still face the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities that allowed COVID-19 to take hold five years ago.
“But the world has also learnt many of the painful lessons the pandemic taught us, and has taken significant steps to strengthen its defences against future epidemics and pandemics.”
In December 2021, frightened by the devastation caused by COVID, countries began drafting an agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
The 194 WHO member states negotiating the treaty have agreed on the maximum of what it includes, but remain deadlocked on practicalities.
A key fault line lies between Western nations with major pharmaceutical industry sectors and poorer countries wary of being sidelined when the next pandemic strikes.