Global Courant 2023-05-04 16:18:44
The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it had fired a senior scientist, known for his role as head of an international mission to China in 2021 to investigate the origins of COVID-19, for sexual misconduct.
The UN agency said Peter Ben Embarek, a Danish scientist who previously led the One Health initiative on animal-to-human diseases, was relieved of his duties last year. Commenting on Reuters, Ben Embarek said he disputes the harassment charge and is appealing the sanction.
“Peter Ben Embarek was fired last year following findings of sexual misconduct against him that were substantiated by investigations and associated disciplinary proceedings,” said WHO spokesperson Marcia Poole.
Poole said the cases leading to the dismissal took place in 2015 and 2017. The agency was first made aware of them in 2018. The WHO has not provided further details on the misconduct allegations.
Poole told the Associated Press in an email that other allegations could not be fully investigated because the “victim(s) did not want to participate in the investigative process.”
It’s not immediately clear why the WHO was only now confirming the 2022 firing, or whether the alleged incidents were reported internally before or after the scientist was tasked with the fact-finding mission in China.
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Danish scientist appeals
Ben Embarek said a single incident in 2017 was “immediately resolved in a friendly manner”. He said he could not comment further as both he and the WHO are bound by non-disclosure agreements until a resolution is reached.
“I am not aware of any other complaints and no other complaints have ever been brought to my attention,” Ben Embarek said in a digital message. “I rightly contest the qualification of harassment and I am hopeful in defending my rights.”
Ben Embarek is the highest-ranking WHO official known to have been fired since the UN agency introduced a series of reforms to improve its response to sexual misconduct. He has often been quoted in the media about the genesis of the pandemic. His dismissal can be appealed through the internal justice system of the UN.
He was the lead WHO representative on a trip to China to investigate where COVID-19 came from. The team made global headlines with their conclusion that bats were the most likely first hosts, eventually leading to a pandemic in humans. They had also determined that a leak of the virus from a laboratory in China was “highly unlikely”, despite calls from several scientists to investigate that possibility.
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Peter Ben Embarek, who led the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 research mission to Wuhan, China, says there were likely more COVID-19 cases in the initial December 2019 outbreak than originally thought.
WHO officials, including Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have since said the origin remains unclear and the theory of the lab leak cannot be ruled out.
Ben Embarek later said there had been some political pressure on the team, including from outside China, but that had not changed the report. He has not identified the source of such pressure.
The WHO has revised its handling of cases of sexual abuse and misconduct after a 2021 investigation found that dozens of aid workers, including some from the WHO, were involved in sexual abuse and exploitation during an Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The agency said people are more willing to come forward about sexual misconduct and it takes action when allegations are well founded. It started with a monthly report on the disciplinary action taken.
