Re: Socialist Demands for the COVID-19 Crisis
Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 12:11 pm
WHO: Animal-to-human virus transmission most likely
By CHEN WEIHUA in Brussels | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2021-03-31 07:13
Peter Ben Embarek, WHO International Team Lead of the WHO-convened Global Study of the Origins of COVID-19 attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in this Feb 12, 2021 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]
The virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic is "extremely unlikely" to have originated in a lab, but most likely jumped from an animal to humans, according to a World Health Organization report released on Tuesday by a joint international and Chinese team probing the virus' origins.
The 120-page report said the virus most probably jumped from an animal, potentially a bat or pangolin, to an unknown intermediate animal host and then to humans. However, the path of transmission is still not known.
"There is no record of viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in any laboratory before December 2019, or genomes that in combination could provide a SARS-CoV-2 genome," the report said.
"In view of the above, a laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely."
The report said that the two most likely scenarios to explain the emergence of COVID-19 both involve the transmission of the virus from animals to humans.
"So far, we have not been able to document any substantial transmission of SARS coronavirus in the months preceding the outbreak in December," Thea Fisher, a member of the international team, said at a news conference on the report on Tuesday.
Peter Ben Embarek, a Danish food safety and animal disease scientist who heads the international team, said the joint team looked into all scenarios.
"We try to stay with the arguments we have, the hard facts we have," he said.
A diagram from the report by the WHO-China joint study team shows the possible transmission routes of SARS-CoV-2 to humans.
He called it "a huge report" with a lot of new knowledge, data and information, and added that information will continue to come out after the initial studies.
He also praised the good collaboration between the Chinese and international experts.
"I think the size of the report, and the amount of material and results and analysis and data in the report, speaks for itself in terms of how the collaboration went," he said.
"There would never be anything like that if we did not have a very strong, good collaboration with our colleagues in China," Embarek added.
The report was written by a joint international team made up of 17 international experts and 17 Chinese experts under a mandate from the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization participated as an observer.
The team conducted a joint study from Jan 14 to Feb 10 in Wuhan, Hubei province, following initial online meetings, according to the report.
Peter Daszak, a member of the international team, tweeted, "I do hope people actually read the huge amount of new data in the report!"
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20210 ... b2a02.html
*******************************************************
(Meanwhile, back at the Empire...)
8 min ago
China accuses US of "political manipulation" and lashes out at countries that criticized WHO report
From CNN's Beijing Bureau
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying holds a press conference in Beijing in December 2020. Stephen Shaver/UPI/Shutterstock
China's foreign ministry on Wednesday said it was “immoral” and “unpopular” to politicize the issue of virus origin tracing after 14 countries, including the United States, raised concerns in a joint statement on the World Health Organization report released Tuesday, following its Wuhan investigation.
“We have repeatedly emphasized that origin tracing is a scientific issue, and it should be carried out cooperatively by global scientists and cannot be politicized, which is also the consensus of most countries,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying in a regular briefing Wednesday.
Hua said the joint statement questioning the report is concrete evidence that countries like the US “disrespect science” and “engage in political manipulation.”
<snip>
1 hr 12 min ago
Chinese scientist calls for wider investigation into the Covid-19 origin
From CNN's Beijing Bureau
Chinese scientist and World Health Organization team leader Liang Wannian speaks at a press conference in Beijing on March 31. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Chinese scientist and World Health Organization team leader Liang Wannian said Wednesday that WHO should do more Covid-19 studies that cover a wider range of regions and perspectives.
This comes after the WHO report into the origins of the virus, compiled by a team of international experts and their Chinese counterparts, was finally released on Tuesday after several delays.
It provides a detailed examination of the data collected by Chinese scientists and authorities from the early days of the pandemic but offers little new insight or concrete findings on where and how the virus spread to humans.
Following the release, the United States and 13 other governments, including the United Kingdom, Australia and South Korea, released a joint statement expressing concerns over the study's limited access to "complete, original data and samples."
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/cor ... ee6dc5fb13
So the report did what it was supposed to do and didn't do what the US wanted, which was indication that it's all the fault of the Chinese Communist Party. And so the US and it's suck-fish lackeys throw shade. Again and again CNN proves to be Uncle Sam's Good Doggy. Propaganda is the very air we breath here in "The Land of the Free"...
By CHEN WEIHUA in Brussels | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2021-03-31 07:13
Peter Ben Embarek, WHO International Team Lead of the WHO-convened Global Study of the Origins of COVID-19 attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in this Feb 12, 2021 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]
The virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic is "extremely unlikely" to have originated in a lab, but most likely jumped from an animal to humans, according to a World Health Organization report released on Tuesday by a joint international and Chinese team probing the virus' origins.
The 120-page report said the virus most probably jumped from an animal, potentially a bat or pangolin, to an unknown intermediate animal host and then to humans. However, the path of transmission is still not known.
"There is no record of viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in any laboratory before December 2019, or genomes that in combination could provide a SARS-CoV-2 genome," the report said.
"In view of the above, a laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely."
The report said that the two most likely scenarios to explain the emergence of COVID-19 both involve the transmission of the virus from animals to humans.
"So far, we have not been able to document any substantial transmission of SARS coronavirus in the months preceding the outbreak in December," Thea Fisher, a member of the international team, said at a news conference on the report on Tuesday.
Peter Ben Embarek, a Danish food safety and animal disease scientist who heads the international team, said the joint team looked into all scenarios.
"We try to stay with the arguments we have, the hard facts we have," he said.
A diagram from the report by the WHO-China joint study team shows the possible transmission routes of SARS-CoV-2 to humans.
He called it "a huge report" with a lot of new knowledge, data and information, and added that information will continue to come out after the initial studies.
He also praised the good collaboration between the Chinese and international experts.
"I think the size of the report, and the amount of material and results and analysis and data in the report, speaks for itself in terms of how the collaboration went," he said.
"There would never be anything like that if we did not have a very strong, good collaboration with our colleagues in China," Embarek added.
The report was written by a joint international team made up of 17 international experts and 17 Chinese experts under a mandate from the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization participated as an observer.
The team conducted a joint study from Jan 14 to Feb 10 in Wuhan, Hubei province, following initial online meetings, according to the report.
Peter Daszak, a member of the international team, tweeted, "I do hope people actually read the huge amount of new data in the report!"
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20210 ... b2a02.html
*******************************************************
(Meanwhile, back at the Empire...)
8 min ago
China accuses US of "political manipulation" and lashes out at countries that criticized WHO report
From CNN's Beijing Bureau
China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying holds a press conference in Beijing in December 2020. Stephen Shaver/UPI/Shutterstock
China's foreign ministry on Wednesday said it was “immoral” and “unpopular” to politicize the issue of virus origin tracing after 14 countries, including the United States, raised concerns in a joint statement on the World Health Organization report released Tuesday, following its Wuhan investigation.
“We have repeatedly emphasized that origin tracing is a scientific issue, and it should be carried out cooperatively by global scientists and cannot be politicized, which is also the consensus of most countries,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying in a regular briefing Wednesday.
Hua said the joint statement questioning the report is concrete evidence that countries like the US “disrespect science” and “engage in political manipulation.”
Governments from countries including the United States, Australia and Canada, jointly expressed concerns about the WHO report released Tuesday on COVID-19 origin tracing in China and called for independent and fully transparent evaluations with access to all relevant data in the future.“The politicization of origin tracing is extremely immoral and unpopular, which only hinders global cooperation and [the] global fight against the virus,” said Hua, adding the efforts run counter to the wills of the international community and will never succeed.
<snip>
1 hr 12 min ago
Chinese scientist calls for wider investigation into the Covid-19 origin
From CNN's Beijing Bureau
Chinese scientist and World Health Organization team leader Liang Wannian speaks at a press conference in Beijing on March 31. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Chinese scientist and World Health Organization team leader Liang Wannian said Wednesday that WHO should do more Covid-19 studies that cover a wider range of regions and perspectives.
"Based on this, the perspective of tracing the origin of the virus must be broader.”“There is a consensus among scientists that the place where it was reported early is not necessarily the place where the virus first appeared,” Liang Wannian said at a news conference in Beijing Wednesday.
This comes after the WHO report into the origins of the virus, compiled by a team of international experts and their Chinese counterparts, was finally released on Tuesday after several delays.
It provides a detailed examination of the data collected by Chinese scientists and authorities from the early days of the pandemic but offers little new insight or concrete findings on where and how the virus spread to humans.
Following the release, the United States and 13 other governments, including the United Kingdom, Australia and South Korea, released a joint statement expressing concerns over the study's limited access to "complete, original data and samples."
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/cor ... ee6dc5fb13
So the report did what it was supposed to do and didn't do what the US wanted, which was indication that it's all the fault of the Chinese Communist Party. And so the US and it's suck-fish lackeys throw shade. Again and again CNN proves to be Uncle Sam's Good Doggy. Propaganda is the very air we breath here in "The Land of the Free"...