GENEVA: The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the international expert team on the Covid-19 origin-tracing mission in Wuhan was “independent” and had no affiliation. It’s not, ” WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference from Geneva, stressing that it’s an independent study which is composed of independent individuals from 10 institutions. At Monday’s press conference, Dr Peter Ben Embarek, head of the international expert team in Wuhan, said their report would be a “consensus document”. Longer studies will be needed to “explore some of the hypotheses and advance our understanding about the origin of the virus”. Earlier last week, the international team concluded its month-long research in Wuhan and presented initial findings at a press conference in China, ruling out the hypothesis that the virus escaped from a laboratory.

Source: The Star February 17, 2021 00:44 UTC