The United States criticized the WHO for misconduct during the COVID-19 pandemic and withdrew from the WHO in January. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in an interview with Bloomberg that the WHO has "done its utmost," and he is quite disappointed with China’s lack of transparency in providing information on the origin of COVID-19.
According to Bloomberg, Tedros said that after the Wuhan municipal government first reported cases of pneumonia of unknown cause on December 31, 2019, the WHO immediately launched an investigation and requested clarification from the Chinese side, and on January 4, 2020, announced the situation publicly on social media.
However, it was not until January 30, 2020, that the WHO declared COVID-19 a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” and on March 11 officially declared it a "global pandemic."
When asked about the issue of tracing the origin of COVID-19, Tedros said that the WHO maintains an open stance, considering all hypotheses, whether natural origins or laboratory leaks. Currently, there is not enough evidence to rule out reasonable suspicion and conclude any single hypothesis as true.
Tedros pointed out that from the release of the first report in 2021, the WHO has been requesting China to be transparent and provide all the information they have to help determine the origin of the virus but has never received a positive response. He feels “very disappointed by this, because it is not only a scientific issue, but also a matter of morality and trust.”
Tedros said that at that time, the "Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens" (SAGO) was established, and that the group prepared many questions regarding the laboratories in Wuhan.
He said: "I handed these questions over to top officials, including President Xi Jinping, but we did not receive any reply."
Certain countries, including the United States, claim to have "intelligence information" regarding the possibility of a laboratory leak. Tedros said he wrote to the U.S. requesting this information, but also received no reply.
China has repeatedly rejected criticisms about a lack of transparency in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and has denied concealing information. Beijing has tried to divert attention from the seafood market in Wuhan and the lab leak theory, suggesting the virus could have arrived in China via frozen food packaging, or might have originated at a U.S. Army research laboratory in Maryland, but such claims lack sufficient scientific evidence. (Source: CNA)