A panel convened by the World Health Organization stated that more research is needed on the origin of the COVID-19including a more detailed analysis of the possibility that it was a laboratory accident.
It is a pronounced setback with respect to the initial conclusions that that UN agency had issued about the genesis of the pandemic. The WHO last year said it was “extremely unlikely” that COVID-19 had jumped from a laboratory to humans. Some scientists suspect that the virus jumped from bats to other animals and from there to humans.
In a report released yesterday, the WHO expert group indicated that “essential data” is missing to find the origin of the virus. The panel declares itself “open to any scientific evidence that may arise in the future and that allows a thorough evaluation of any reasonable hypothesis.”
Identifying the animal origin of a virus can take years; It took the scientific community 15 years to discover the exact species of bat that spawned the SARSa respiratory disease related to COVID-19.
The WHO commission noted that because laboratory accidents have occurred in the past, that theory cannot be completely ruled out, even though it has been highly politicized.
Former US president Donald Trump has repeatedly said – without any evidence – that the COVID-19 It started in a Chinese lab. He has also accused the OMS of “conspiring” with China to cover up the origin of the disease, citing the public praise the agency has directed at China.