- In China, the first patients infected with coronavirus appeared, but the origin of the virus is yet to be determined. The US Government has repeatedly accused China of having created the virus in a Chinese laboratory, and to clarify the allegations and doubts, the World Health Organization (WHO) will send a team of experts to China.
This is the fourth brigade sent by the international organization, as the WHO epidemiologist María Van Kerkhove recalled that the last of the brigades sent recommended that China seek the origin of the epidemic.
The WHO has discarded the theory of the virus created by the human being. Van Kerkhove explained that the virus has a "zoonotic origin" and added that most new pathogens come from animals. However, he stressed the importance of finding the origin because “it is difficult to prevent it from occurring once again without knowing the origin”.
Critical United States
The research team announced by the WHO has come amid criticism from the United States. The Donald Trump administration has repeatedly accused China of creating the virus in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan. But Trump has not only been critical of China, but also of the WHO, which has tried to curb the virus outbreaks and cut funding to the WHO.
However, the United States has not been the only country in the world that has asked to investigate the origin of the virus. The Australian Government has also called for an independent investigation, as the latest news has detected several cases of coronavirus by the end of 2019 in the United States and France. This calls into question the hypothesis of Chinese origin.