Source:
https://scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3134961/balancing-act-who-next-phase-investigation-coronavirus-origins
China/ Diplomacy

Coronavirus: Balancing act for WHO on next phase of investigation into Covid-19 origins

  • UN body faces challenge to pursue ‘lines of inquiry that China will want … while at the same time meeting the expectations of the US’
  • There are growing calls to look into the theory that the virus emerged from a lab in Wuhan, but that would require full access to the facility
Some nations said the findings of a WHO-led coronavirus inquiry were flawed by a lack of transparency and independence from Beijing. Photo: Reuters

Questions over what the next steps will be in the search for the origins of Covid-19 hang over an annual meeting of the World Health Organization’s member countries this week. Answering those will be a steep challenge for the UN body, experts say.

The meeting is the first since the controversial conclusion earlier this year of a WHO-led inquiry into how the virus that causes Covid-19 first began spreading in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where it was detected in late 2019.