BCSIR calls emergency press meet, reads out WhatsApp message

The Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) had called an emergency press conference stating that it had new developments regarding the genome sequencing of Covid-19 to share.

Responding to the call, reporters from different media outlets – around 40 – rushed to the BCSIR office in Dhaka on Wednesday.

However, in a strange turn of events, BCSIR Chairman Prof Aftab Ali Sheikh, instead of providing insights on the new coronavirus variants, read out a media report published by the US media network CNN.

Bangladesh, along with other different developing countries, was praised for its genome sequencing efforts despite having very little resources in the media report, something the BCSIR chief claimed to be a matter of great pride.

“Countries with far fewer resources, including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Suriname process samples more quickly than the United States does,” read a line of the CNN report.

In the briefing, Prof Aftab also spoke about a WhatsApp message from the spokesperson of the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), where his council was reportedly lauded for its research initiatives.

Prof Aftab said: “It is a matter of pride that the international media, GISAID, is recognizing our efforts.”

But the chairman, accompanied by other high officials of BCSIR, failed to provide any update on the BCSIR’s Covid-19 research advancements.

Many reporters condemned the “emergency press conference "as being “misleading and confusing.”