First step towards solving the mystery origins of Covid-19

Published Mon, Jul 13, 2020 · 09:50 PM

THE first step was taken this past weekend towards investigating the origins of the coronavirus which, by July 12, had infected almost 13 million people around the globe with the loss of more than half a million lives.

However, while the two-person team from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in China on Friday, by Monday morning, there had been no announcement of any meetings with Chinese officials to discuss a larger WHO mission and its scope of investigation. Thus, it remained unclear what China's attitude is towards this attempt by the WHO to determine the animal origins of the virus, which is believed to have come from bats.

China was originally opposed to the idea of an independent investigation and excoriated Australia for spearheading the effort. But in May, at a meeting of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO, there was such momentum for an investigation that China, in a last-minute change, s…