WHO calls for more transparency on COVID-19 from China

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00:00760 million cases, 6.9 million deaths,

00:04national economies brought to a grinding halt amid mass lockdowns.

00:09Five years after the appearance of a novel coronavirus

00:12that would become known as COVID-19,

00:15the World Health Organization has called for more transparency

00:18from the disease's country of origin, China.

00:23This is a moral and scientific imperative.

00:25Without transparency, sharing and cooperation among countries,

00:29the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare

00:31for future epidemics and pandemics.

00:35On December 31st, 2019, the WHO's China office

00:39picked up a media report from health officials in the city of Wuhan

00:43about an outbreak of viral pneumonia.

00:45Its origins remain unclear.

00:48In 2021, a WHO mission to the Wuhan area

00:52concluded that the virus had probably found its way from bats to humans

00:56via a third host at a live animal market,

00:59but that more research was necessary.

01:01Beijing, though, declined to authorize further visits.

01:05The Chinese government insists it has done everything it should.

01:10Five years ago, after the outbreak of the pandemic,

01:12China immediately shared epidemic information and viral gene sequence

01:16with the WHO and the international community.

01:19We shared our prevention, control and treatment experience,

01:23making a huge contribution to the world's pandemic-fighting work.

01:27A two-year investigation by U.S. lawmakers recently concluded

01:30that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a Chinese virology lab near Wuhan.

01:36The WHO's director general, meanwhile, says that,

01:39while the world has strengthened its pandemic prevention defences since 2019,

01:44many of the weaknesses that gave COVID a foothold still exist today.

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