Group of Scientists Call for Investigation Into COVID-19 Origin
With the goal of getting clarity on the origin of the coronavirus, that has killed more than 3 million people worldwide, a group of 18 prominent scientists penned a letter. They are calling for an international investigation into exactly how COVID-19 began.
One of those doctors is from Stanford University.
“I think we can do this. we need to do it, and we can,” said Dr. David Relman, a professor of Medicine and Microbiology at Stanford University.
Relman co-organized the letter.
“The consequences have been enormoust’s a calamity. I think the important point to say here is it matters. It matters how it began as to how we go about trying to prevent the next one,” he said.
The World Health Organization conducted an investigation finding the cause from an animal was “likely to very likely,” and a laboratory incident as “extremely unlikely.”
But Relman and the group said it wasn’t a fair assessment.
Of the 313-page report, only four pages covered a possible lab accident.
“We should not just be offering our personal opinions on what we think or what we feel,” he said.
“Here’s already been too much of that. What we’re saying in this letter is, let’s just refrain from offering our opinions and look at the cold hard facts.”
The United States and 13 other countries expressed concerns about the WHO study because investigators were delayed from entering China until months after the pandemic began and because china withheld critical data.
Relman said multiple countries should be involved in the probe to prevent any conflict of interest.
“Our government, and some other governments are thinking about how exactly we would do this,” he added. “We would bring in the National Academy of Sciences from other countries. There are already discussions about this.”
Officials add with anti Asian sentiment in some countries, to remember it was the Chinese doctors, scientists, and journalists who shared crucial information with the world about the virus spread at a great personal cost.
Now, they too want to get the answers the world deserves.