China: After the world health body constituted an expert group on Wednesday to study the genesis of the novel coronavirus, a ripple of concern hit China. The COVID-19 native country on Thursday has warned against ‘ political manipulation’ during the fresh probe by the WHO.
This statement stems from the announcement made by the WHO Chief during a press conference from Geneva on Wednesday. A day after the announcement, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spox Zhao Lijaian said, “China will continue to support and participate on global scientific origins-tracing and firmly oppose any form of political manipulation.” He further recommended all investigating bodies adopt an objective, scientific and responsible attitude and follow the requirement and mandates of WHA resolution and execute the study in a fair manner.
Nearly 26 members were elected to constitute the group who hold class expertise in areas such as epidemiology, animal health, clinical medicine, virology and genomics. The proposed group includes six people who visited China as a part of the previous WHO-China Mission. Scientific Advisory group of the Origins of the Novel Pathogens (SAGO) has been entitled to advise WHO on the development of a global framework to define and guide studies into the origin of emergence and re-emergence of the pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential.
Earlier in 2021, a WHO-led team had visited China to probe the genesis of the virus however, struggled to get clarity about the research the Wuhan lab conducted and had minimal scope to perform a thorough investigation.