The World Health Organization (WHO) chief has called for further investigation into a popular theory that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory leak in China. The director-general of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also rebuked China for not divulging key data.
China has always sharply declined the hypothesis. And the team of international experts sent to Wuhan by the WHO earlier this year to probe the pandemic’s origins have also all but ruled out.
Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy,” WHO chief stated.
I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough, he told the UN health agency’s 194 member states, in a briefing on the COVID-19 origins report.
“As far as WHO is concerned, all hypotheses remain on the table. This report is a very important beginning, but it is not the end. We have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must continue to follow the science and leave no stone unturned as we do,” he added.
