Studies find COVID-19 infection worldwide earlier than previously identified

SCIENTIFIC EXAMINATION

Regarding the new findings, Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Health Emergencies Program, said at a press conference on Friday that the WHO is "working with scientists all over the world."

The organization will "take every detection in France, in Spain, in Italy very seriously, and we will examine each and every one of them," he said.

Indeed, virus source tracing is a serious scientific matter, which should be based on science and studied by scientists and medical experts. As far as COVID-19 is concerned, being the first to report the virus does not mean that the virus had its origin in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Historically, the place where a virus was first reported has not often been that of its origin. The HIV infection, for instance, was first reported by the United States, yet it might also be possible that the virus did not owe its origin to the United States. And more and more evidence proves that the Spanish Flu did not originate from Spain.

As WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said, the WHO is "committed to doing everything it can based on science and solutions to find the origin and that's the basics."

"We need to do the basics and we will not stop from knowing the truth on the origin of the virus but based on science, without politicizing it or trying to create tension in the process," the WHO head observed.