G7 leaders discussed the origins of Covid on Saturday as the Chief of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that all hypotheses – including the lab leak theory – remain “open”. Sky News has the story.
At their summit in Cornwall on Saturday, G7 leaders were joined by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s Director General, during their talks on the Covid crisis and efforts to avoid future pandemics.
The WHO Chief set the world’s leading democracies the challenge of vaccinating 70% of the global population against Covid by the time of the G7’s next summit in Germany next year.
And, speaking to reporters at a briefing after the leaders’ discussions, Dr Tedros confirmed the subject of the Covid outbreak was raised at the Cornwall summit.
Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered intelligence officials to “redouble” efforts to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, including the theory that it came from a laboratory in China.
Referring to the millions around the world who have died due to Covid, Dr Tedros said: “This is very tragic and I think the respect these people deserve is knowing what the origin of this virus is, so we can prevent it from happening again.”
Dr Tedros confirmed the WHO was preparing for the second phase of its investigation into the origins of Covid, which he said would need “transparency” and the “cooperation” of China.
“We believe that all hypotheses should be open and we need to proceed with the second phase to really know the origins,” he said.
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