SHOCK: WHO admits laboratory origin of Covid-19?

Over two years after the coronavirus was first detected in China,
and after at least 6.3 million deaths have been counted worldwide
from the pandemic, the World Health Organization is recommending
in its strongest terms yet that a deeper probe is required into
whether a lab accident may be to blame (https://bit.ly/3xlTU2K).
That stance marks a sharp reversal of the U.N. health agency's
initial assessment of the pandemic's origins, and comes after many
critics accused WHO of being too quick to dismiss or underplay
a lab-leak theory that put Chinese officials on the defensive.
WHO concluded last year that it was “extremely unlikely” COVID-19
might have spilled into humans in the city of Wuhan from a lab. Many
scientists suspect the coronavirus jumped into people from bats,
possibly via another animal.
Yet in a report released Thursday, WHO's expert group said “key
pieces of data” to explain how the pandemic began were still missing.
The scientists said the group would “remain open to any and all
scientific evidence that becomes available in the future to allow for
comprehensive testing of all reasonable hypotheses.”
Identifying a disease's source in animals typically takes years. It
took more than a decade for scientists to pinpoint the species of
bats that were the natural reservoir for SARS, a relative of
COVID-19.
WHO's expert group also noted that since lab accidents in the past
have triggered some outbreaks, the highly politicized theory could
not be discounted.
Jean-Claude Manuguerra, a co-chair of the 27-member international
advisory group, acknowledged that some scientists might be “allergic”
to the idea of investigating the lab leak theory, but said they needed
to be “open-minded” enough to examine it.
The report could revive accusations that WHO initially was too
accepting of Chinese government explanations early in the outbreak,
which ultimately killed millions of people, sickened millions more,
forced dozens of countries into lockdown and upended the world
economy.
Investigations by The Associated Press found that some top WHO
insiders were frustrated by China during the initial outbreak even
as WHO heaped praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping. They were
also upset over how China sought to clamp down on research into
the origins of COVID-19.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speculated repeatedly without
evidence — that COVID-19 was started in a Chinese lab. He also
accused WHO of “ colluding” with China to cover up the initial
outbreak, citing the U.N. health agency's continued public praise
of the country despite China's refusal to share crucial data.
WHO's expert group said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus sent two letters to senior Chinese government officials
in February requesting information, including details about the
earliest human cases of COVID-19 in the city of Wuhan. It's unclear
whether the Chinese responded.
The experts said no studies were provided to WHO that assessed the
possibility of COVID-19 resulting from a laboratory leak.
Jamie Metzl, who sits on an unrelated WHO advisory group, has
suggested that the Group of Seven industrialized nations set up their
own COVID origins probe, saying WHO lacks the political authority,
expertise and independence to conduct such a critical evaluation.
Metzl welcomed WHO's call for a further investigation into the lab
leak possibility but said it was insufficient.
“Tragically, the Chinese government is still refusing to share
essential raw data and will not allow the necessary, full audit of
the Wuhan labs,” he said. “Gaining access to this information is
critical to both understanding how this pandemic began and
preventing future pandemics.”
In Washington, a Republican-led subcommittee in the House of
Representatives on the COVID-19 pandemic tweeted: “Americans
were smeared as ‘conspiracy theorists' for asking whether #COVID19
came from a lab leak. Now, the WHO is asking the same questions.”
“WE NEED ANSWERS,” added the committee, which is headed by
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
WHO's expert scientists said numerous avenues of research were
needed, including studies evaluating the role of wild animals, and
environmental studies in places where the virus might have first
spread, like the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan.
In March 2021, WHO released a report about COVID-19's origins
following a highly choreographed visit by international scientists
to China. The report concluded that the disease most likely jumped
into humans from bats and that there was no evidence to suggest
there was a connection to a laboratory.
Yet after considerable criticism, including from some scientists
on WHO's team, the agency's director acknowledged that it was
“ premature ” to rule out a lab leak.
In its new report, WHO said the experts were given access to data
that included unpublished blood samples from more than 40,000
people in Wuhan in 2019. The samples were tested for COVID-19
antibodies. None were found, suggesting the virus was not spreading
widely before it was first identified in late December that year.
WHO's experts called for numerous studies to be done, including
testing wild animals to find which species might host COVID-19.
They also said the “cold chain” supply theory should be probed.
China has previously advanced the idea that traces of COVID-19
on frozen packaging was causing outbreaks rather than any domestic
source, a theory widely panned by outside scientists.
To investigate whether COVID-19 might have been the result of
a lab accident, WHO's experts said interviews should be conducted
“with the staff in the laboratories tasked with managing and
implementing biosafety and biosecurity.”
China has called the suggestion that COVID-19 began in a laboratory
“ baseless ” and countered that the virus originated in American
facilities, which were also known to be researching coronaviruses in
animals. The Chinese government has said it supports the search for
the pandemic's origins, but that other countries should be the focus.
In a footnote to the report, WHO's group noted that three of its own
experts — scientists from China, Brazil and Russia — disagreed with
the call to investigate the possibility of COVID-19 being sparked by
a lab accident.
Scientists connected to WHO lamented in August 2021 that the search
for the pandemic's origins had stalled and that the window of
opportunity was “closing fast.” They warned that collecting data that
was now at least two years old was increasingly difficult.