Knowing COVID-19 origins not important, preparations for future pandemic vital: Time magazine

WASHINGTON -- Knowing COVID-19 origins would not change much in preventing COVID-19 variants and efforts should be focused on preparations for future pandemics, said an article published in the Time magazine.

"Knowing origins may add little to what we already know in terms of addressing Delta, Omicron and whatever might come next," said the article published Wednesday.

The best way forward may be to minimize the distraction of a politicized attempt to assess origins while, instead, investing in long-term international collaborative endeavors on SARS-CoV-2 and in preparation for future epidemics and pandemics, said the article.

The Donald Trump administration's concern for the SARS-CoV-2 origin was less a matter of dispassionate interest in science, but more an effort to open a new front in the US response to a rising China, or an effort to divert attention from a delayed and chaotic US response to the pandemic, said the article.