News release

From: Springer Nature

In a Comment piece in this week’s Nature, the designated independent international members of the joint WHO–China team tasked by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October 2020 with understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2 summarize the scientific process so far. They call on the scientific community and country leaders to expedite the follow-up research required to identify how COVID-19 emerged. “Our report was published this March,” they write. “It was meant to be the first step in a process that has stalled”.

They set out six priorities for a second phase of studies, including the critical trace-back of people and animals in regions inside and outside China that have the earliest evidence for circulation of the virus; targeted surveys of possible reservoir or intermediate hosts; and follow-up of credible new leads. The authors note that understanding the pandemic’s origins is a global priority, warning that: “The window of opportunity for conducting this crucial inquiry is closing fast: any delay will render some of the studies biologically impossible.” They explain as an example that SARS-CoV-2 antibodies wane, so collecting further samples and testing animals or animal handlers who might have been exposed before December 2019 will yield diminishing returns.