An appeal from on Monday indicated that the UN health agency was still waiting on to give them data needed to clarify .
“We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of COVID-19,” the WHO said in a statement.
“This is a moral and scientific imperative. Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics.”
Wuhan lab raises questions about virus origins
Scientists around the world agree that, originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. For the first several months of the pandemic, the generally accepted hypothesis was that the virus started spreading among humans after first infecting animals, most likely bats. The “wet market” in Wuhan, , was considered the most likely origin point.
However, some online users speculated that the virus leaked from a research lab in Wuhan or was even released as a bioweapon. US President Donald Trump soon bolstered the “lab leak” theory by saying he had seen evidence of a lab leak, and senior members of his administration repeated that claim.
China has dismissed the narrative as “groundless.”
The that visited both the wet market and the lab — under tight security and close supervision by Chinese officials — but the visit failed to produce a clear answer. In March 2021, deeming lab leak to be “extremely unlikely” and declaring that the SARS-CoV-2 most probably originated in animals, while also saying that “no firm conclusion” was reached about the role of the wet market. Just several months later, however, the WHO asked China to audit Chinese biotech labs.
Beijing responded and decrying it as showing “disrespect for common sense and arrogance towards science.”
Most scientists still reject lab leak idea
Meanwhile, the Biden administration ordered an intelligence probe into the lab leak theory.
The report said both animal-to-human transmission and a laboratory incident were “plausible hypotheses.” However, the intelligence agencies “remained divided” on the most likely origin of COVID-19.
, President Joe Biden said Beijing “continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information.”
“Critical information about the origins of this pandemic exists in the People’s Republic of China, yet from the beginning, government officials in China have worked to prevent international investigators and members of the global public health community from accessing it,” according to Biden.
Despite multiple reports from the US intelligence community and various scientific studies in the following years, the definitive answer remains out of reach. An expert survey published in February 2024 found that , but a significant minority — one in five — thinks the “research-related accident” is the most likely cause.
dj/lo (AFP, dpa)
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