Reports suggest Covid may have originated in raccoon dogs

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on China to provide more information about the origin of Covid-19 after reports suggested it may have originated in raccoon dogs from the Wuhan wet market. Researchers from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention uploaded sequences related to samples taken at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan to the global genomic repository Gisaid, where it was analysed by scientists worldwide.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged China to share more data amid reports that the origin of Covid pandemic has been linked to racoon dogs from Wuhan wet market.

The WHO said the findings were based on genetic data from swabs taken from the Huanan Market in January 2020, and that every piece of data was important in determining the origin of the pandemic. However, the WHO stressed that the findings were not definitive and that all origin hypotheses, including an accidental lab leak, remained on the table.

While “these data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said at a media briefing on Friday.

“These data could have — and should have — been shared three years ago.

“We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results,” the global health body chief said.

The WHO has repeatedly criticised China for its reluctance to release genetic material and for its overall public health response to the pandemic. China, in turn, has rejected claims of a laboratory leak and suggested that the virus may have originated in the US. The WHO has urged China to be transparent in sharing data and conducting necessary investigations to help understand the pandemic’s origin, which remains both a moral and scientific imperative. The organisation has emphasised that determining the pandemic’s origin will help the world prepare defences against future epidemics and pandemics.