The World Health Organization is blasting China over its lack of transparency over the origins of COVID-19.

A senior WHO official recently called for the nation's government to release the information immediately.

Now the WHO sensationally turns on China over hiding of Covid data https://t.co/sNuqPwckvL pic.twitter.com/yEthELShTV

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) April 6, 2023

The challenge

"Every new piece of data could potentially move the world closer to stopping another pandemic – perhaps a worse one – in the future," Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove stated.

'The failure to share information only fuels politicization of origins tracing and keeps all hypotheses viable," she added.

China has advanced technical capabilities and I therefore believe that more #COVID19 data exist that have yet to be shared…lets move away from the politics of blame and, instead, exploit all diplomatic and scientific approaches so that…https://t.co/c8PVZWrrgd

— Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) April 7, 2023

The controversy

"China has advanced technical capabilities and I therefore believe that more #COVID19 data exist that have yet to be shared," she tweeted.

"Let's move away from the politics of blame and, instead, exploit all diplomatic and scientific approaches so that … the global scientific community can do what it does best—collaborate, focus on this health crisis, and find evidence-based solutions to thwart future pandemics. Time is running out," she challenged.

The World Health Organization chief pressed China to share its information about the origins of COVID, saying that until that happened all hypotheses remained on the table, more than three years after the virus first emerged https://t.co/mDDso6BSzj

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 7, 2023

"Without full access to the information that China has, you cannot say this or that," said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in response to a question about the origin of the virus, according to Reuters.

"All hypotheses are on the table. That's WHO's position and that's why we have been asking China to be cooperative on this."

"If they would do that then we will know what happened or how it started," he said.

The delay

The World Health Organization said Thursday it was sure China had far more data that could shed light on the origins of COVID-19, demanding Beijing immediately share all relevant information.https://t.co/hykkXpZR9w

— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) April 7, 2023

"More than three years after COVID-19 first surfaced, heated debate still rages around the origins of the pandemic," the Philadelphia Star reported.

"The issue has proved divisive for the scientific community and even different US government agencies, which are split between a theory that the virus jumped naturally to humans from animals and one maintaining that the virus likely leaked from a Wuhan laboratory—a claim China has angrily denied," it continued.

The world deserves to know China's role in the origin of the pandemic. The information is also vital to helping to prevent future pandemics.

The increased pressure on China's government is a positive sign for health transparency but it is unclear whether it will do anything to change the minds of the communist government's leadership.