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Why the world needs more transparency on the origins of novel pathogens

Collaboration and openness are essential to minimize the risks of future pandemics, says the World Health Organization’s scientific advisory group, SAGO.
  1. Marietjie Venter

    1. Marietjie Venter is chair of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) and head of the Zoonotic Arbovirus and Respiratory Virus Research Programme, Centre for Viral Zoonoses, Department of Medical Virology, University of Pretoria, South Africa, and writes on behalf of SAGO.

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A team of researchers wearing full PPE catch bats at dusk

Researchers catch bats emerging from a cave in Thailand to test them for coronaviruses. Credit: Adam Dean/New York Times/Redux/eyevine

On 5 May, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that COVID-19 is no longer a public-health emergency of international concern. This signalled the end of the acute phase of a pandemic that has caused almost 7 million confirmed deaths worldwide. But more than three years after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, where the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 came from, and how it first came to infect humans, remains unclear.

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Nature 618, 27-29 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01722-6

References

  1. World Health Organization. WHO-Convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2: China Part. Joint WHO–China Study (WHO, 2021).

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  2. WHO Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of Novel Pathogens. Preliminary Report (WHO, 2022).

  3. Liu, W. J. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06043-2 (2023).

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  4. Crits-Christoph, A. et al. Preprint at Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7754299 (2023).

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Supplementary Information

  1. List of SAGO members-1

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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