Wuhan lab leak ‘extremely unlikely’ source of Covid pandemic, says WHO
It is “extremely unlikely” that Covid-19 spread to the human population through a laboratory leak, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
Investigators on the ground in Wuhan believe the most likely hypothesis for the start of the pandemic was the virus spreading to humans via an “intermediary host species”.
Experts studying the likely cause of the coronavirus crisis underscored the theory that the virus was originally circulating in bats or pangolins, though they added that there was not enough evidence to be certain.
“In addition to these findings, the high susceptibility of mink and cats to [Covid-19] suggest there may be additional species of animals — for example dogs or felines — that act as potential reservoir,” added Professor Liang Wannian, head of WHO’s expert panel on China’s Covid-19 response.
Conspiracy theories about the pandemic being the result of a Wuhan laboratory leak have been circulating for months.
The US State Department under the Trump administration last month amped up anti-China rhetoric through an explosive statement that pointed fingers at the country’s scientists.
The note said the US had “reason to believe that several researchers inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illnesses”.
But WHO’s first major study into the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis poured cold water on the claims this morning.
“Did we change dramatically the picture we had beforehand? I don’t think so,” said Peter Ben Embarek, chairman of the investigation team. “Did we improve our understanding and add details to that story? Absolutely.”
He added that it was possible Covid had been spreading in regions outside Wuhan before the first reported cases of the outbreak.
Substantial transmission of the virus occurred in the population in Wuhan in December 2019, with many cases associated with the city’s Huanan wet market.
However, infection was also taking place elsewhere across Wuhan at the same time, suggesting coronavirus could have spread to the human population from elsewhere, Embarek added.