WHO to Set up New Group to Trace Virus Origins

WHO to Set up New Group to Trace Virus Origins
Peter Ben Embarek and Marion Koopmans, members of the WHO team arrive for the WHO-China joint study news conference at a hotel in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on Feb. 9, 2021. Aly Song/Reuters
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GENEVA—The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday it was setting up a new group to trace the origins of the coronavirus, seeking to end what it called “political point scoring” that had hampered investigations.

The inability of the WHO to say where and how the virus began spreading has fueled tensions among its members, particularly between China, where COVID-19 cases were first identified in Wuhan in late 2019, and the United States.