The World Health Organization, much criticized for its initial investigation into Covid’s origins, has released a plan to guide investigation into the next big outbreak. The playbook from the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens — known as SAGO — proposes studying: — The earliest cases of an outbreak and their characteristics — Potential exposure of those infected to wild and domestic animals or other environmental pathogens — The pathogen’s characteristics and potential ancestors — Any possible connections to lab or field research Authorities should promptly report what they find, the document states. Why it matters: The debate over how the Covid-19 pandemic started, whether through a spillover of the virus from animals to humans or as a result of a lab accident, continues nearly five years after the first cases in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Internationally, it’s pitted China against the U.S. and other Western countries. Domestically, it has pitted Republicans, who lean toward the lab leak theory, against Democrats, who initially dismissed that view as a conspiracy theory but have since said they’re open-minded. The debate has also seen Republicans question whether top U.S. health officials, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s former chief medical adviser, and Dr. Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, knew about a potential lab leak and covered it up. Both former officials have denied such claims. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on China to share more data on the earliest known and suspected cases of Covid: a seafood market linked to the outbreak and the work done in labs in Wuhan. Without this information, he said, no hypothesis on Covid’s origins could be ruled out.
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