The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday (13/10) launched a team of 26 scientists to revive a stalled investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
The team will also be tasked with investigating new viruses and finding ways to prevent future pandemics.
In recent years, there have been many high-risk viruses that have emerged or re-emerged, such as MERS, avian influenza viruses, Lassa, Marburg and Ebola.
“The emergence of a new virus that has the potential to trigger epidemics and pandemics is a fact of nature. SARS-CoV-2 is indeed the most recent virus, but it will not be the last,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Understanding where new pathogens actually come from is critical to preventing future outbreaks,” he added.
Selected from over 700 registrants
The 26 members of the WHO proposed team were selected from more than 700 applicants from various disciplines.
They include Christian Drosten (head of the Berlin Institute of Virology), Yungui Yang of the Beijing Institute of Genomics, Jean-Claude Manuguerra of the French Pasteur Institute, and Inger Damon of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While some of the names assigned to join the WHO-China scientific mission related to the investigation of the origins of COVID-19 are Vladimir Dedkov, Farag Elmoubasher, Thea Fischer, Marion Koopmans, Hung Nguyen and John Watson.
This new team will later provide an independent evaluation of all scientific findings from global studies on the origins of COVID-19.
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