A team of 10 international scientists assembled by the World Health Organization (WHO) will travel to Wuhan in China in January 2021 to investigate the origins of Covid-19. The COVID-19 virus is suspected to have originated from a wet-market in Wuhan selling animal meat.
US, Australia, and other countries have accused China in cohorts with WHO of trying to conceal the initial outbreak. The calls for investigation have led to tensions between many countries and China, especially the US and Australia. President Donald Trump’s administration has also accused WHO of being complicit with China in hiding the outbreak. US stopped funding the WHO and subsequently quit the organisation, a decision which President-elect Joe Biden has said will reverse one he is in the White House.
China reported the first coronavirus cases, in the city of Wuhan, to the World Health Organization on December 31. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had claimed the U.S. has evidence that the disease originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province. Beijing has previously opposed calls for such investigations from Washington and Canberra, but in May Xi signaled that Beijing would be amenable to an impartial review.
A German scientist who is part of the team of experts to investigate the origins of the coronavirus spoke to Associated Press and said that they plan to sift through samples and medical data from China to help determine where the bug first jumped from animals to humans and which species it came from. Most researchers are of the opinion that the virus originated in animals in China, probably bats, which the WHO team will examine.
In an interview with The Associated Press (AP), Mission member Fabian Leendertz, a biologist at Germany’s Robert Koch Institute said the team has already begun discussions with scientists in China. AP reports that they will likely start in Wuhan, where the outbreak was first reported, though a precise itinerary hasn’t yet been set.
In May 2020, over 120 countries and key members of the World Health Organization (WHO) backed a resolution for an international investigation into the disease’s origin. The countries included India and among others the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
Observers say China “has not explained” why it banned domestic flights from Wuhan from January 23 but allowed some international flights to continue operating. There is apprehension that infected travelers from Wuhan—including those who flew from other Chinese cities—”seeded outbreaks in other nations”.
Tracking the Origin – An Epoch Times Investigation
In a documentary by The Epoch Times and NTD, Epoch Times investigative reporter Joshua Philipp took an in-depth look at the progression of the pandemic from January to April and tracked the possible origins from Huanan Seafood Market in Hubei Province to the scandals at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, from long-running experiments on viruses to military takeovers, suspicious activities from other corners.
The Epoch Times investigation showed that as per the Lancet Papers, the supposed patient zero was nowhere near the market and that there are no bats in the Seafood Market or anywhere close. On January 29th, The Lancet republished an analysis of 99 confirmed cases at Jin Yin-tan Hospital of which 50 had no history of exposure to the Seafood Market.
According to the New England Journal, of the 425 cases confirmed before Jan. 22nd, 45 cases onset before January 1st had no history of exposure to the Seafood Market. Notably, the authors of the two Lancet papers in the New England Journal of Medicine are doctors and medical experts in mainland China. The investigation throws light on the possibility of the virus being cultivated at the infamous P4 Laboratory in Wuhan which was soon closed for any inspection by Chinese authorities even before expert virologists were able to study the virus strain released by China to the world.
Chinese Doctor Li Wenliang who died of Wuhan Virus had warned fellow medics in December about the virus. At the same time, authorities sealed off all virus samples, prevented international experts from joining the investigation, and used national television to slander doctors such as Li Wenliang who disclosed the outbreak, for spreading rumors.
Given such doubts, many countries have called for several actions to ascertain the origin of the virus so that similar scenarios can be avoided in the future. These actions include:
1) Reveal the truth through investigations
2) Initiate sanctions against the CCP and
3) Seek massive restitution for the worldwide public health emergency resulting in tremendous health and economic loss.
Balaji Subramanian 
Dr. Niranjan B Poojar 
Aayush Pal