COVID-19 origin study should be conducted in multiple countries: Kenyan journalist

NAIROBI - The study on the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic should be undertaken in multiple countries in order to achieve outcomes that are balanced and devoid of partisan finger-pointing, a Kenyan journalist has said.

Eric Biegon, a multimedia journalist with Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), said that any scientific study on the origin of the virus should not be restricted to a single country or territory.

"Tracing the origin, yes, it is important, for a better future response to pandemics," Biegon said in a commentary published on KBC website on Aug. 4.

"But to avoid being seen as a mission against one nation or region, scientists should be allowed to get to the bottom of this, and the net should be cast wider with probes being undertaken in multiple locations," he added.

Biegon noted that some industrial powers like the United States are lobbying the global health agency to begin a second probe in China despite China's openness to the initial probe that debunked the laboratory leakage theory.