Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Becerra Urges WHO To Expand Probe Of The Origin Of Covid-19
Reuters: U.S. Calls For 'Transparent' New Investigation Into COVID Origins
The United States called on Tuesday for international experts to be allowed to evaluate the source of the coronavirus and the “early days of the outbreak” in a second phase of an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. U.S. intelligence agencies are examining reports that researchers at a Chinese virology laboratory were seriously ill in 2019 a month before the first cases of COVID-19 were reported, according to U.S. government sources who cautioned on Monday that there is still no proof the disease originated at the lab. (Nebehay, 5/25)
The Washington Post: U.S. Health Secretary Calls For Follow-Up Investigation Into Pandemic’s Origins
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, speaking in a video message, urged an annual ministerial meeting of the World Health Organization to establish a second stage of the investigation that took place in the Chinese city of Wuhan earlier this year. (Ang and Cunningham, 5/25)
The Hill: White House Pushes For Independent Investigation On COVID-19 Origins
The White House on Monday said that officials cannot draw a conclusion about the origins of COVID-19 without an independent investigation and more data from China. “We are and we have repeatedly called for the [World Health Organization] WHO to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic’s origins that is free from interference and politicization,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a briefing Monday. (Chalfant, 5/24)
CNN: WHO Coronavirus Investigators Pinpoint Overlooked Chinese Data For Further Study, Source Says
Previously overlooked Chinese data on extensive screening of animals for coronavirus around the time the pandemic erupted is among several areas identified for further study by World Health Organization (WHO) scientists investigating the origins of Covid-19, a source close to the team told CNN. The source said the records are contained in a nearly 200-page annex posted alongside the WHO panel's March report that received little attention among global experts at the time. But the data may add weight to calls from China's critics for more transparency and to the WHO team's desire to return to the country for further studies. (Walsh, 5/25)
The Wall Street Journal: The Wuhan Lab Leak Question: A Disused Chinese Mine Takes Center Stage
On the outskirts of a village deep in the mountains of southwest China, a lone surveillance camera peers down toward a disused copper mine smothered in dense bamboo. As night approaches, bats swoop overhead. This is the subterranean home of the closest known virus on Earth to the one that causes Covid-19. It is also now a touchpoint for escalating calls for a more thorough probe into whether the pandemic could have stemmed from a Chinese laboratory. In April 2012, six miners here fell sick with a mysterious illness after entering the mine to clear bat guano. Three of them died. (Page, McKay and Hinshaw, 5/24)
CNBC: U.S. Should Dig Deeper Into Theory That Covid Originated In A Wuhan Lab, Ex-Clinton Official Says
The U.S. should be playing a larger role in getting to the bottom of the theory that Covid-19 first leaked from a virology lab in Wuhan, China, Atlantic Council senior fellow Jamie Metzl told CNBC on Monday. “Right now, the World Health Assembly is meeting, and the United States should be doing everything possible with our allies to demand a comprehensive investigation into Covid origins with full access to all the records, samples, and personnel in China and beyond,” Metzl, a former national security official in the Clinton administration, said on “The News with Shepard Smith.” (DeCiccio, 5/24)
More from WHO —
The Hill: WHO Director-General Calls For Countries To Vaccinate At Least 10 Percent Of Their Populations By September
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general on Monday called for all countries to vaccinate at least 10 percent of their populations by September and at least 30 percent by the end of 2021 in a “Drive to December”. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared during a speech to the annual World Health Assembly that WHO member states should back the “massive push” to reach these COVID-19 vaccination goals. (Coleman, 5/24)
CIDRAP: World Health Assembly Kicks Off With Pandemic Issues At Fore
In an address to the group today, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, warned the group that the world remains in a very dangerous situation and as of today, more COVID-19 deaths have been reported in 2021 than in all of 2020. "Since our Health Assembly started this morning, almost 1000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19. And in the time it takes me to make these remarks, a further 400 will die," he said. Though global cases have dropped for the past 3 weeks, the world remains in a fragile situation, Tedros said. (Schnirring, 5/24)
AP: Merkel, Macron Back Efforts To Improve WHO As Meeting Opens
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday were among leaders rallying around efforts to strengthen the World Health Organization and the world’s ability to prepare for and defend against pandemics. It came as the U.N. health agency opened its annual assembly, with a draft resolution in the works that acknowledges missteps in the response to COVID-19. The sweeping proposal would seek to boost pandemic response, stabilize WHO’s funding and ensure greater access to health care — including to vaccines, tests and treatments linked to the coronavirus. (Keaten, 5/24)
CIDRAP: WHO, Switzerland To Launch First BioHub Lab To Share Pathogen Samples
In a step designed to speed pathogen risk assessment and countermeasure development, as well as to broaden access, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Switzerland today signed a memorandum of understanding to launch the first WHO BioHub facility, part of the WHO BioHub system first announced in November. The biosafety lab in Spiez will safely receive, sequence, store, and prepare pathogen samples for sharing with other laboratories, the WHO said in a press release. It said the current system is slow and done bilaterally on an ad hoc basis, which leaves some countries without access to the resulting benefits and tools. (5/24)
