WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove told the scientific journal Nature how political tensions around the world, and particularly between China and the United States, have “hampered the progress” of research.
Then-US President Donald Trump claimed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that the virus came from a Chinese laboratory. The country in question then returned the ball to the United States. “The investigation had to take place under this pressure”, regretted with the ANP the Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, who accompanied the first phase of the study in Wuhan, where the virus was discovered for the first time at the end of 2019.
The research team published a report on the first phase of the investigation into the origin of the coronavirus in 2021. It presented four possible scenarios, the most plausible of which was a spread from bats to humans, with possibly another animal in between. The second phase of the investigation was to shed light on what exactly happened.
But too much time has now passed to collect some of the data needed to determine the origin of the virus. “I think the question ‘what exactly happened?’ is still relevant,” Ms Koopmans explained. “But I don’t think we’ll ever have the answer.”
For the virologist, things went wrong on several points. “You could say that China should have been more transparent, but the WHO hasn’t always been fair either. Research needs a basis of trust,’ argued Ms Koopmans. “So it can’t work if mutual accusations are added to it.” And the Dutchwoman added: “Critics were already pouring in on the so-called shortcomings of the first report when it hadn’t even been released yet”.
