- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated its extremely unlikely COVID-19 originated from a laboratory leak in China
- WHO recently sent a team of investigators to the region to determine how coronavirus may have originated
- The head of the mission stated the lab leak theory was “extremely unlikely” but conceded more work needed to be done to determine the source
- Wuhan has long been named the epicentre of the pandemic, with the first case of coronavirus recorded there in December 2019
- China denies the virus started in Wuhan, instead blaming imported frozen goods for bringing the virus into the region
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed a theory that COVID-19 may have have begun after leaking from a medical laboratory in Wuhan, China.
A team from the WHO have been in Wuhan for several weeks, trying to determine the source of the coronavirus pandemic.
The mission has now wrapped up, and the team’s leader Peter Ben Embarek stated the lab leak theory was “extremely unlikely”.
“The findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population,” he explained.
However, the WHO food safety and animal diseases expert conceded that the team had failed to discover anything new regarding the exact origin of COVID-19.
Instead he advised the most likely scenario was still that the virus had originated in bats and then been passed along to humans somehow.
“Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific, targeted research,” the WHO team leader added.
The team of experts’ work in Wuhan was closely watched by the Chinese Government, which denies that the region is the epicentre for COVID-19.
Instead, China argues that imported frozen goods may be responsible for bringing the virus into the region.
The Chinese Government also argues that COVID-19 wasn’t diagnosed amongst people in Wuhan before December, 2019.
“We haven’t been able to fully do the research, but there is no indication there were clusters before what we saw happen in the later part of December in Wuhan,” China’s National Health Commission expert Liang Wannian said.
The WHO team’s trip to Wuhan came after months of negotiation with the Chinese Government.