The World Health Organization has urged China to share data on the origins of the Covid pandemic, five years after it began in Wuhan.
“This is a moral and scientific necessity,” the World Health Organization said in a statement on the occasion of what it described as a “landmark” anniversary.
He added, “Without transparency, participation and cooperation between countries, the world cannot prevent and adequately prepare for future epidemics and epidemics.”
Many scientists believe that the virus was transmitted naturally from animals to humans, but some doubts remain that it escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan.
In its statement, the World Health Organization went back to the early days of Covid and traced its evolution from a local phenomenon to a global scourge, leading to lockdowns around the world and the ultimately successful race to develop vaccines.
The organization said: “Five years ago, on December 31, 2019, the WHO country office in China obtained a media statement issued by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission from its website about cases of ‘viral pneumonia’ in Wuhan, China.”
“In the weeks, months and years that followed, Covid-19 came to shape our lives and our world,” she continued.
The World Health Organization said it “went to work immediately” at the dawn of 2020. It recalled how its staff activated emergency systems on January 1, and informed the world three days later.
“By January 9-12, WHO published its first set of comprehensive guidelines for countries, and on January 13, we brought together partners to publish the blueprint for the first laboratory test for Sars-CoV-2,” she added.
The WHO said it wanted to “honor the lives changed and lost, acknowledge those suffering from Covid-19 and long Covid, express gratitude to health workers who have sacrificed so much to care for us, and commit to learning from Covid-19”. To build a healthier tomorrow.
In May 2023, the World Health Organization announced this COVID-19 is no longer a “global health emergency”.
Its director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at the time that at least seven million people had died due to the pandemic.
But he added that the real number was “likely” closer to 20 million deaths, nearly three times the official estimate.
Since then, the World Health Organization has repeatedly warned against complacency about the potential emergence of Covid-like diseases in the future.
Dr. Ghebreyesus said the next pandemic “could come at any moment” and urged the world to prepare.
