Although it has been nearly a year and a half since the war with coronavirus commenced, the great mystery surrounding its true origin has remained unsolved. Various theories have been thrown by medical and scientific communities, however, nothing seems to be comprehensively clear. The chapter which seemed to be on the verge of closure was reopened a bit more extensively on Wednesday with US President Joe Biden asking the country’s intelligence agencies to report to him within 90 days about the ‘precise origin of virus’. India too joined the efforts in unravelling of the mystery on Friday by supporting the latest WHO study meant for ascertaining the origin of the deadly virus.
It needs no mentioning that despite protracted efforts to come to a comprehensive conclusion regarding the origin of coronavirus, from lab (human intervention) or from nature via bats in the Chinese province of Wuhan, no consensus has arrived yet. While the Chinese authorities have been steadfastly rubbishing off the claims of the lab angle, for much of the medical community, this has been far from convincing. It’s worth recalling that a WHO-led team with the task of digging out the truth had spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January/February this year and in its report concluded that in all probability the virus had been transmitted from bats. The essence of the report was that it ruled out the possibility of a ‘laboratory incident’ as the cause for the invasion of the virus in human population. While the findings were widely held as inclusive by scientists and researchers, the WHO DG also distanced himself from the report, reiterating that a further investigation with additional missions involving specialist experts is necessary. These are the circumstances that led to the initiation of the new probe and India has been absolutely correct in supporting it. Arrival at a definite conclusion has been elusive so far due to the hush-hush attitude of China which has thereby fuelled the speculation that something is being purposefully concealed. The investigations so far have been nothing more than mere eyewash as the Chinese government never provided experts full access to original data and samples pertaining to the source of the virus and preliminary stages of the pandemic. It’s also very likely that the upcoming investigation may also face the same fate if the ‘non-cooperation’ continues and that will be a crime against humanity and an attack on science.

There will be epidemics and pandemics in future and for fighting them, Covid will serve as a knowledge bank. But if there remains huge gaps in ‘fundamentals’ resulting from the hide-and-seek tactic of a nation, nothing can be more unfortunate. Global pressure on China for allowing access to its labs must be increased. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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