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WHO Chief Faults Covid Report for Dismissing Lab Leak Theory
Posted
March 30, 2021
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0:59Now PlayingThe World Health Organization’s chief said a mission to study the origins of the coronavirus in China didn’t adequately analyze the possibility of a lab leak before it concluded that the pathogen probably spread from bats to humans via another animal.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said even though the international team of scientists determined that a leak is the least likely hypothesis, it requires further investigation. He said he’s ready to deploy additional missions involving specialist experts as he doesn’t believe the assessment was extensive enough. He made the comments in a briefing to WHO member countries Tuesday.
Although Tedros has consistently said all options remain on the table and the WHO wouldn’t shut down any lines of inquiry, Tuesday’s comments mark the first time he’s openly speculated about the possibility of a leak. The WHO chief was criticized by Donald Trump’s administration for being too deferential to China in the early days of the pandemic. Trump even began the process for the U.S. to exit the WHO, which President Joe Biden reversed on his first day in office.
The origin report was published Tuesday, confirming what researchers said in mid-February at the conclusion of their four-week mission to Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the first Covid cases emerged at the end of 2019, and in subsequent interviews.
Tedros said he would expect future studies to involve quicker and better data-sharing in some of his most pointed comments directed against China. The country has pushed back firmly against any suggestions of a leak from a high-security virus lab in Wuhan, a theory advanced by Robert Redfield, who led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the first year of the pandemic.
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