Formation

The WHO first announced its decision to create SAGO in July 2021, following the WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2, which countries including the United States, Japan and Australia reportedly said was "compromised by a lack of transparency from China". The WHO-convened report finding that a laboratory incident was "extremely unlikely" was reportedly also pushed back on by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom who called on China to share raw data, be transparent, and cooperate for the next phase of the study. Critics of the WHO convened study group said it was hampered by conflict of interest, as one member had a long-standing working relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Chinese government responded stating the WHO-China joint mission report was "authoritative, science-based & widely recognized" and urged "relevant parties to stop politicizing the issue of origin-tracing."^[10][11]

The technical lead of the WHO's COVID-19 response Maria Van Kerkhove told the Washington Post in October 2021 that the new SAGO group, which includes scientists from the United States and China, is "a real opportunity right now to get rid of all the noise, all the politics surrounding this and focus on what we know". However, Lawrence Gostin of the Georgetown University Law Center, who specializes in public health law, said to the WaPo "If you believe that SAGO will answer the question, what was the origin of SARS-CoV-2, then you are sadly mistaken because there is little to no chance of them gaining access to information or on-the-ground investigation as far as China is concerned". Van Kerkhove said that a mission to a member state needs to be arranged and is hopeful that "there will be additional missions to China and potentially elsewhere". Gostin said the biggest value of the group would be not for COVID-19, but for the WHO to have an expert standing committee rigorously vetted to investigate future outbreaks where conflicts arise.^[12] In July 2023, a review article in The New York Times details information to date about the origins of the Covid-19 virus.^[9]

Panel Membership

On October 13, 2021, the WHO issued a "public notice" listing 26 "proposed members" for the group, offering the public to provide "public comments" on the individuals selected.^[13][10]

During the public comments period, several scientists including Alina Chan said that several individuals proposed members may carry biases, and that no members from the WHO-convened study team should have been selected for SAGO.^[14][15]

On November 1, 2021, the WHO announced it would re-open the call for applications for an additional three days to encourage more applications from experts in the social sciences fields of anthropology, ethics, political science and the fields of biosafety and biosecurity.^[16][17]

On November 24, the group held its first meeting with 27 members, chaired by medical virologist Marietjie Venter, from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), with Jean-Claude Manuguerra, from Institut Pasteur (France), as vice-chairman, and two new members from social sciences and biosecurity fields. The meeting was largely procedural, and members agreed to meet frequently to form an overarching framework to study emerging novel pathogens, including the origins of COVID-19.^[18][19]