The World Health Organization (WHO) has fired the scientist who led the mission to China to study the origin of the virus responsible for Covid-19. Peter Ben Emberek, on suspicion of sexual misconduct. The removal of the Danish researcher was confirmed this Wednesday night by the official WHO and the scientist ReutersBut that was just last year.
However, these cases date back to the period 2015 to 2017 and started being reported to the health authority the following year, 2018. Three years later, in 2021, Peter Ben Embark was sent by the WHO to Wuhan to investigate the spread of the coronavirus from the Chinese city. Last year, he was fired “following the discovery of sexual misconduct against him, proven through investigations and related disciplinary proceedings,” according to a statement from an official source.
Speaking to Reuters, Peter Ben Emberek admitted he had been accused of sexual abuse, but only in one alleged case in 2017 that was “immediately resolved amicably”. The scientist refuses to be involved in other episodes, the details of which are unknown, and is appealing the decision through the United Nations (UN) internal justice system of the WHO.
“I am not aware of any other complaints and no other complaints have been brought to my attention,” he said. Peter Ben Board. But at The Financial Times, the WHO noted that the scientist was the subject of two complaints that had been under investigation for five years. There were other allegations, but they were “not fully investigated” because the victims did not want to cooperate with the internal investigation. Hence, “no disciplinary action was taken”.
But, from 2018 to the end of 2022, there were more complaints Peter Ben Emberek told the WHO that it intends to complete all investigations in the next six months. But the Danish scientist’s name is already on an internal list of suspected sex abusers, which the United Nations uses to ensure that any person named in the database is rehired by another UN-linked agency.
A team led by Peter Ben Emberek said SARS-CoV-2 originated in bats, jumped to an intermediate species, and then jumped to humans before becoming infectious, according to the WHO report. The thesis that the virus responsible for Covid-19 escaped from a laboratory in China was classified as “highly unlikely”, the panel considered. Since then, Peter Ben Emberek has been one of the most vocal scientists against the hypothesis that the epidemic had a laboratory origin.
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