Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00760 million cases, 6.9 million deaths,
00:04national economies brought to a grinding halt amid mass lockdowns.
00:09Five years after the appearance of a novel coronavirus
00:12that would become known as COVID-19,
00:15the World Health Organization has called for more transparency
00:18from the disease's country of origin, China.
00:23This is a moral and scientific imperative.
00:25Without transparency, sharing and cooperation among countries,
00:29the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare
00:31for future epidemics and pandemics.
00:35On December 31st, 2019, the WHO's China office
00:39picked up a media report from health officials in the city of Wuhan
00:43about an outbreak of viral pneumonia.
00:45Its origins remain unclear.
00:48In 2021, a WHO mission to the Wuhan area
00:52concluded that the virus had probably found its way from bats to humans
00:56via a third host at a live animal market,
00:59but that more research was necessary.
01:01Beijing, though, declined to authorize further visits.
01:05The Chinese government insists it has done everything it should.
01:10Five years ago, after the outbreak of the pandemic,
01:12China immediately shared epidemic information and viral gene sequence
01:16with the WHO and the international community.
01:19We shared our prevention, control and treatment experience,
01:23making a huge contribution to the world's pandemic-fighting work.
01:27A two-year investigation by U.S. lawmakers recently concluded
01:30that COVID-19 most likely leaked from a Chinese virology lab near Wuhan.
01:36The WHO's director general, meanwhile, says that,
01:39while the world has strengthened its pandemic prevention defences since 2019,
01:44many of the weaknesses that gave COVID a foothold still exist today.