On September 4, 2024 the World Health Organization (WHO) led by their Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), who were established in late 2021, announced a publication of their new and “unified” “global framework” to “define and guide studies into the origins of emerging and re-emerging pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential”.
A quick word search of the document reavealed no mention of lab/laboratory “leak”, “escape” or “gain of function” or “dual” use research. But there is a chapter titled “Laboratory biosafety and biosecurity element” which was developed in collaboration with the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Biosafety that covered a “possible breach of laboratory biosafety or biosecurity” that “may be caused by an accidental event or a procedural or engineering failure that results in the infection of staff working in a laboratory, when they are handling animals or collecting and handling specimens, either in a field or laboratory setting”. The framework DOES NOT cover “the deliberate or intentional release of pathogens from laboratories”, nor the intentional functional manipulation of viruses “studied” in laboratories.
The WHO is holding on strongly to the “zoonosis narrative ” for novel viruses with pandemic potential, even though the SARS-CoV-2 origin evidence points strongly to a lab leak in Wuhan, China, funded by US government Gain-of-Function research grants.
Notably Professor Christian Drosten is listed a member of SAGO.