COVID-19 origin-tracing should aim at preventing future pandemics: U.S. scholar

WASHINGTON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The real issue about COVID-19 origins is how to prevent future pandemics based on international cooperation, instead of blaming or acquitting some countries, a U.S. university professor has said.

"The question about origins is not about one government or another, much less a geopolitical issue or a matter of blaming China and exonerating the U.S.," wrote Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Scientists, politicians, pundits and opinion leaders on social media should "acknowledge that the tragedy of the pandemic has already shed light on how to prevent future outbreaks and pandemics," the scholar said in an opinion article published Thursday by the China Global Television Network, which was earlier published by the Project Syndicate.

"Because natural zoonotic events are inevitable, we must establish much better global surveillance and warning systems, and of course early response systems when outbreaks occur," he said.