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On February 14, Nature News reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) has “shelved the second phase” of COVID-19 origin investigation “citing ongoing challenges over attempts to conduct crucial studies in China”.
Two years after the WHO’s go to to China to research the origin of COVID-19, the WHO has “abandoned” the second section of the investigation, it stated and quoted WHO’s Technical Lead for COVID-19, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove saying that “there is no phase two”. Nature News went on to say that although “WHO planned for work to be done in phases, the plan has changed”.
A day later, Dr. Kerkhove in a tweet refuted the information concerning the WHO abandoning COVID-19 origin investigation. She stated: “This is not true. We have never, nor will we ever abandon this. We have said this loudly, clearly, repeatedly. We will continue to say this.” In one other tweet on February 15, Dr. Kerkhove stated: “The Nature piece is incorrect. We’ve said many times publicly… since early 2021 that understanding the origins is critically important… We’ve asked Nature for a correction.”
Apparently, there has been a confusion concerning the standing of section two of the COVID-19 origin investigation, and not that the WHO has abandoned plans for persevering with its investigation into the origin of COVID-19. Phase two was initially alleged to be a “continuation of January 2021 mission to Wuhan, which was in a sense seen as phase one”, however the WHO “updated” its plans and the section two turned SAGO (Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens)”.
In a press briefing on February 15, Dr. Kerkhove clarified that the WHO was “building on what was done in phase one” and the SAGO as a everlasting Strategic Advisory Group was to check the origins of COVID-19 and “broadly to establish a framework to understand the frameworks of any future epidemic and pandemic and the pathogens which emerge”.
In essence, the WHO had solely dropped the concept of constant COVID-19 origin investigation within the type of phases as additional investigation will likely be taken up by the SAGO. That message was primarily what Dr. Kerkhove had tried conveying to Nature News when she stated that there’s “no phase two” and that the plan to work in phases had modified.
“We just need to make sure that it is very clear that we have not abandoned any plans. We have not stopped any work. We will not stop until we understand the origins of this,” she reiterated within the press briefing.
