(Dan Tri) – American experts believe that if the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is not found, the world may face other pandemics in the future.

The Covid-19 epidemic started in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China (Photo: Reuters).

`There will be a Covid-26 or Covid-32 pandemic if we do not clearly understand the origin of Covid-19,` Peter Hotez, co-director of the Vaccine Development Center of Texas Children’s Hospital (USA), warned in a statement.

The warning was issued amid the investigation into the origin of Covid-19, including the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory, heating up again.

About a year and a half since the Covid-19 epidemic began to break out in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China, up to now the source of the pandemic has infected more than 170 million people around the world, more than 3.3 million people.

Bloomberg quoted Mr. Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration under former President Donald Trump and currently a member of the board of directors of pharmaceutical company Pfizer, saying the information supports the SARS-CoV-2 hypothesis.

China has so far not provided evidence to refute that hypothesis, while research in the direction that the virus originated from nature has not yet yielded many results, Mr. Gottlieb said.

According to expert Hotez, the world needs to coordinate with the Chinese government to trace the origin of Covid-19 and prevent future pandemics.

`We need a team of scientists, epidemiologists, virologists, and bat research experts in Hubei province for six months or a year to investigate,` Mr. Hotez said.

Mr. Hotez admitted that China may not accept another investigation in the country, so the US should put pressure on Beijing, including threats of sanctions, to force Beijing to cooperate with the investigation.

Last week, US President Joe Biden instructed the country’s intelligence community to redouble its efforts to investigate and clarify the origin of Covid-19.

Mr. Biden decided to declassify part of the report and `hotly` direct the intelligence community after China announced last week that it would not participate in the second phase of the WHO investigation into the origin of Covid-19.

In a related development, British media said that this country’s intelligence assesses the hypothesis that the virus escaped from the Wuhan laboratory `absolutely possible` and they are assisting the US in the investigation.