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Note to journalists: Below are links to the remarks of WHO's DG, followed by a transcript of answers on the origins of COVID-19, and links to video:
WHO Director-General's remarks at media briefing 15 February 2023
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening,
Last night I returned from the Syrian Arab Republic, where I visited areas affected by last week’s devastating earthquake.
I saw the destruction of entire communities, the unspeakable suffering of people, and the courage and determination of survivors and responders.
In Aleppo, I met people in temporary shelters set up by community and religious groups;
I saw neighbours supporting each other with bedding, clothes and food;
I saw health workers providing medicines and consultations;
I met WHO’s teams – who themselves are affected by the earthquake – to hear about the work they are doing;
And I visited health centres, where I saw how even before this disaster, more than a decade of war has left the health system unable to cope with an emergency like this.
As we drove from Aleppo to Damascus, I saw the legacy of conflict, with town after town destroyed and abandoned.
Survivors are now facing freezing conditions without adequate shelter, heating, food, clean water, or medical care.
WHO is providing care to survivors with injuries and disabilities sustained in the earthquake; hypothermia; mental health and psychosocial needs; the increased risk of infectious diseases, and the range of regular health needs.
So far, we have shipped medicines and supplies to both affected countries to support care for more than half a million people, including for urgent surgery.
In Damascus, the Regional Director Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Chief of Emergencies Dr Mike Ryan and I met with President Assad, to discuss the impact of the earthquake, and requested that he allow additional cross-border access points, which he indicated he was open to.
On Monday, two more cross-border points were opened, allowing convoys from Türkiye into the north-west of the Syrian Arab Republic.
This supplements the aid we had in place before the earthquake struck, and which we distributed to health facilities that day.
WHO remains committed to supporting all people in the Syrian Arab Republic now, and in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
On Saturday we launched an appeal for 43 million US dollars to support our response in both countries.
This amount is increasing by the day, and we expect WHO’s financial needs for this emergency to double by the end of this week.
We urge donors to be generous.
The search and rescue phase is now coming to an end, but for WHO, the task of saving lives is only just beginning.
(See full remarks on WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing – 15 February 2023 )
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Partial transcript and video from 15 February briefing with questions and answers on origins of COVID-19 (Check against delivery)
Link: https://who.canto.global/b/NDRB4
(IN VOICE) Ashleigh Furlong, Reporter, POLITICO
My question is for Dr Van Kerkhove, regarding her comments to Nature on the origins investigation. When you said that the plan has changed on the work being done and there is no phase two to this work, I was hoping you could clarify what you meant.
As I understand it, the WHO press officer is saying while the investigation is stalled, it is not abandoned. I was hoping just to hear you elaborate on what you meant in that interview, thank you very much.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme
So thank you very much for the question. This is an error in reporting which is quite concerning because it is causing some headlines which are inaccurate. I think we need to be perfectly clear that WHO has not abandoned studying the origins of COVID-19. We have not. And we will not. I spent more of an hour speaking to this reporter over three separate interviews one of which was in person while in Singapore together, describing the history of the different missions which have taken place over time in which WHO has been involved in studying and supporting field activities related to understanding the origins of this pandemic. Initially phase two was a plan to be a continuation of that January 2021 mission to Wuhan, which was in a sense seen as phase one. But we updated our plans and I have explained it to the reporter. In a sense phase two became SAGO (Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens). We were building on what was done in phase one and especially the SAGO as a permanent Strategic Advisory Group to study the origins of COVID-19 but to work broadly to establish a framework to understand the frameworks of any future epidemic and pandemic and the pathogens which emerge. So the creation of SAGO was our best effort to move this work forward. We made this very clear in several statements by then, by the Director-General, by myself, by Mike Ryan in different press briefings but also in statements that we published online. SAGO is an incredible group of experts from around the world that have come together and met multiple times including two times face-to-face over the past year to advance our understanding of this. I want to make very clear in this article there was a suggestion of a quiet shelving of a plan. There was no quiet shelving of any plans and we have been, and we continue to be open, transparent, we brief our Member States regularly in the wider world on where we are with finding these origins. Let me also be very clear that we continue to ask for more cooperation and collaboration with our colleagues in China to advance studies that need to take place in China. Studies which were recommended from the March 2021 WHO report from the June 2022 SAGOreport and studies that we have been recommending. Studies of the animal-human interface, on markets, on farms. These studies need to be conducted in China and we need cooperation with our colleagues there to advance our understanding. We will follow the science. We will continue to ask for countries to depoliticize this work. But we need cooperation from our colleagues in China to advance this. I do also want to mention that through the work of studying the origins, it is very difficult. We had always envisioned multiple missions to China, for particular technical aspects but also elsewhere, wherever the science takes us and we have worked with additional Member States around the world to understand and follow any lead in terms of any early indication of SARS-CoV-2 circulation and we will continue to do so. So, you know, we just need to make sure that it is very clear that we have not abandoned any plans. We have not stopped any work. We will not stop until we understand the origins of this. And it is becoming increasingly difficult because the more time that passes, the more difficult it becomes to really understand what happened in those early stages of the pandemic . The DG may want to add to this. We will work with any Member State and all Member States, we will work with scientists to keep it rooted in the science until we have a better understanding of what happened, follow all hypothesis. Follow any science that leads us in any direction, and we think the colleagues around the world who are helping us to advance this. Thanks.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
I think following up on the origins study and knowing how this pandemic started is very important and very crucial. And we should continue pursuing. As you know, two reasons why we need to know the origins of this pandemic. First, it is science. And secondly it is a moral issue. First, then I say science, we need to know how this started to prevent the next one. Second, when I say moral, millions of people lost their lives. And many suffered and the whole world was taken hostage by a virus. And it is morally very important to know how we lost our loved ones. So it has a science and a moral issue and we need to continue to push until we get the answer. As Maria said, we are continuing to push and recently, as recently as seven weeks ago, I sent a letter to a top official, to a top official in China, asking for cooperation. Because we need cooperation and transparency and the information we asked in order to know how this started. So I assure you that we will continue to push. We will continue to pursue until we get the answer because this is scientifically correct and morally correct to really pursue and understand the answer to the origins and how this pandemic has started.
(IN VOICE) Christiane Oelrich , Reporter, DPA News Agency
I would like to go back to Dr Maria Van Kerkhove and talk about this Nature article and your response. You said we had envisaged multiple missions to China. I would like to know if you are still envisioning missions to China and whether you have put in that request? Do you get no answer to a request like that? Or are your requests denied?
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical Lead COVID-19, WHO Health Emergencies Programme
Thank you for the question. So when I say we envision multiple missions, this means that when you are trying to study the origins of something and we have discussed this previously, it is very very difficult. There are a lot of avenues you can follow. There are many hypothesises which need to be followed up. For example, most of these pathogens are zoonotic. You need to understand the possible animal origins, the animals which are susceptible. Information about wildlife trade, markets. The people who work in those markets and sell those animals. Any investigations that you can follow on early cases to track down the earliest cases. Understand there are potential exposures. There are suggestions of lab leaks or the release, whether deliberate or not, or accidental of a pathogen entering the human population by a breach of biosecurity, or biosafety. When we say we envisioned multiple missions many would take on different technical aspects and each mission that you have would be, you would bring different experts together and they would have specific objectives. The SAGO in outlining its report in June, outlined many studies that need to continue to be continue ducted to understand the origins of this virus and what we hoped to be able to do was to establish several different missions. WHO works with Member States and it is up to the Member States to allow us to do that. Others may want to come in on this aspect. When I say we envision multiple missions, it would really be done to have specific focuses so we could really do the time laboured work. The scientific studies that take time. The technical collaborations with colleagues in countries to form those relationships to establish those relationships to carry out the studies themselves, many of which take time. And that would have to happen over a number of different types of studies. In addition, we have followed every lead in terms of early indications of SARS-CoV-2 circulation, whether from wastewater or from serologicalsurveys, or studies from leftover biological materials. We have done investigations in Italy. We followed up studies in the US, in France. So we've had collaborations with other countries in which we've had some field visits to those …those countries as well. So it's part of the scientific study. It is not a political discussion. There is no politics in this. It is really the time it takes to do these types of missions. And we will continue to pursue the work to be done in countries, including in China and elsewhere.
Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme
I think it is an important thing that's missed sometimes. It's the primary responsibility of Governments and nation states to investigate diseases within their borders. Primarily for the purpose of protecting their own populations by understanding where a disease comes from. We will see that with multiple diseases. It is notoriously difficult to ascertain that unless there is a concerted effort. We still don't understand the origins of mpox or Ebola. It is not easy or straightforward. What we would generally do as WHO is work with Governments, most of the science, 99% of that science is done in a nation state by national authorities by national institutions. And the SAGO has laid out quite clearly what the specific studies that need to be carried out in better to better understand the origins, for example of SARS-CoV-2, in China. So the constant narrative of WHO, we will go into countries. If for example we have Marburg right now in Equatorial Guinea, if there is a better opportunity to understand the origin we are ready to support those countries in doing that. We are welcomed in. We go and help control a disease. As part of that we try and understand that disease better on behalf of everybody. So I don't think the question is to WHO. I think colleagues and the media need to direct their questions to the countries who have been asked very specifically through the SAGO report to carry -out specific studies and report on those studies to WHO. They are laid out very, very clearly. WHO doesn't have the power to go into a country to do those specific studies. SAGO has laid out specifically what should be done, and we would expect to see the results of those studies. If a country then has difficulties or has challenges in carrying out those studies and wants WHO to come and help, then obviously we do that at any time at the specific request of countries. But SAGO has been clear and has laid out what needs to happen in order for the next phase for this understanding to emerge. And Dr Tedros has had, as he said, and consistently, both in writing and through teleconferences, continued to offer assistance, continued to request that these studies be done and continued to say that unless and until we have all of these studies, all hypothesis regarding the origins of this specific virus, remain on the table.
LINKS: WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing – 15 February 2023
Link to video of answers on Covid Origins: https://who.canto.global/b/NDRB4
Full video file of briefing, Duration: 49mins: Link: https://who.canto.global/b/LM9PR
Audio File: https://who.canto.global/b/SQJ1A
News edit 1: Duration: 07:42 Link: https://who.canto.global/b/UI0IB
(Soundbites filmed in Geneva and remote locations on 15 FEB 2023)
Earthquake in Türkiye and the Syrian Arab Republic (who.int)
EURO site: Türkiye and Syria earthquakes (who.int)
EMRO site: WHO EMRO | EMRO home page | Landing | Front page
Marburg outbreak: Equatorial Guinea confirms first-ever Marburg virus disease outbreak | WHO | Regional Office for Africa
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