UN enters heated US-China Covid origin row; asks Trump administration to cough up evidence

World Health Organization's emergencies chief said Monday that it has received evidence from US government to back up allegations by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that coronavirus could have originated at a laboratory in Chinese city of Wuhan.

“From our perspective, this remains speculative,” Michael Ryan told reporters in Geneva.

“We have t received any data or specific evidence from US government relating to purported origin of virus.”

He said WHO would be “very willing” to receive any such information US has. comments come as Trump ministration has deunced both China and UN health ncy for alleged missteps in handling outbreak that first emerged in city of Wuhan and has w infected millions and killed at least 239,000 people. Trump on Friday said WHO was “like public relations ncy for China.”

Ryan reiterated that evidence and vice that UN health ncy has received suggest that vel coronavirus is of natural origin, even if Pompeo and Trump have alleged evidence y have seen suggests it could be from Wuhan Institute of Virology lab.

“If that data and evidence is available, n it will be for United States government to decide wher and when it can be shared,” Ryan said. “But it's difficult for WHO to operate in an information vacuum in that specific regard.”

On Sunday, Pompeo told ABC's “This Week” program that re was “a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan.” Ryan and Maria Van Kerkhove, technical le on WHO emergencies program, put ir focus on hunt for animal host that is believed to have relayed coronavirus from bats.

Such a determination could help drive public health policies, like vising people to keep away from some s of wildlife or livestock. y said Chinese scientists continued to work with world against pandemic, and suggested such collaboration remained crucial and that efforts to “investigate” possible wrongdoing by Chinese officials could derail such scientific cooperation.

“We need to understand that we can learn from Chinese scientists, we can learn from each or, we can exchange kwledge and we can find answers toger,” Ryan said.

“If this is projected as aggressive investigation of wrongdoing, n I believe that's much more difficult to deal with. That's a political issue. That is t a science issue.” “Science will find answers,” he ded.

“ implications of those answers can be dealt with from a policy and political perspective.” WHO heaped praise on China from early on in outbreak.

On January 30, moments before anuncing that coronavirus was a global health emergency, WHO Director-General Tedros ham Ghebreyesus said China was “setting a new standard for outbreak response.” He praised speed with which China detected outbreak, sequenced geme and shared that information with WHO. He said its ”commitment to transparency" was “beyond words.” joint team said at time that it was t probing any allegations that China may have mishandled outbreak.