Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesperson, was asked to respond to the letter and replied in an email that the expert team that went to China “is working on its full report as well as an accompanying summary report, “which we understand will be issued simultaneously within a few weeks.”
The open letter noted that the WTO study was a joint effort by a team of outside experts selected by the World Health Organization, working with Chinese scientists, and that everyone should agree on the report. The letter emphasizes that the team was denied access to some records and that they did not investigate laboratories in China.
The team’s findings read the letter, “although it is potentially useful to a limited extent, does not represent the official position of the WHO, nor does it represent the result of an unrestricted, independent investigation.”
Without naming him, the letter criticizes Peter Daszak, an expert on animal diseases and their connection to human health, who is the head of EcoHealth International. The letter is linked to articles about dr. Daszak and said he had earlier expressed his belief that it was probably the natural origin of the virus.
Dr. Daszak said the pressure of the letter to investigate the origins of the virus in the laboratory was a position “supported by political agendas.”
“I urge the world community to wait for the publication of the WTO mission report,” he added.
Filippa Lentzos, a senior lecturer in science and international security at King’s College London, and one of the signatories of the letter, said: ‘I have to think that it’s more of a global effort to feel that after the UN General Assembly should be held where all the nations of the world are represented and can vote on whether they will give a mandate to the UN Secretary-General to conduct this type of inquiry. ”