The Russian agency and the World Health Organization described risk assessment differently

On October 7, Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, reported sharing information with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations health agency, and characterized its position as an absence of sanitary and epidemiological risks.

In the statement by the organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, he said the full picture was not yet available and further information had been requested. Earlier, an organization spokesperson had relayed a graded preliminary risk assessment.

These formulations differ. The collected source material includes no organization document literally substantiating the Russian agency’s description of an absence of all risks.

The reason for the difference has not been established. It cannot be resolved by assumptions about timing, translation or unpublished arrangements. The additional questions are described in a separate article.