On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Kuwait, where he offered his support for the UN agency’s study into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
“The U.S. supports the @WHO plans for additional studies into COVID-19 origins, including in (the People’s Republic of China), to better understand this pandemic and prevent future ones,” Blinken tweeted after arriving in the Gulf Arab state.
Tedros’ encounter with the US envoy was not on the diplomat’s stated schedule.
Blinken “emphasized the necessity for the next phase (of the inquiry) to be prompt, evidence-based, transparent, expert-led, and free from interference,” according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.
“The importance of the international community joining together on this topic of essential concern,” he added.
The United Nations’ health agency has been under increasing pressure to conduct a fresh, more in-depth examination into how the illness that has killed over four million people worldwide initially originated.
The WHO was only able to deploy a team of independent international scientists to Wuhan in January, more than a year after Covid-19 was first discovered there, to assist Chinese counterparts in their investigation of the pandemic’s origins.
Long dismissed as a right-wing conspiracy theory and categorically denied by Beijing, the hypothesis that Covid-19 came from a lab leak has gained traction.
Beijing has stated repeatedly that a leak was “very unlikely,” citing the findings of a joint WHO-Chinese trip to Wuhan in January.
However, despite mounting pressure from the US for an investigation into a biotech facility in Wuhan, the WHO said earlier this month that a second stage of the international probe should include audits of Chinese facilities.
Such a proposal, China warned, shows “disrespect” and “arrogance toward science.”
According to State Department spokeswoman Price, Blinken and Tedro also “discussed prospects for partnership to further reforming and strengthening the WHO.”
Former President Donald Trump began withdrawing the US from the WHO, accusing it of being dominated by China, but Joe Biden reversed that decision after being elected to the White House.
