WHO: Lab leak theory needs investigation

Scientists still say data points to animal origin for virus

A team of scientists convened by the World Health Organization to better understand the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and possible future outbreaks has said a theory that the virus could have escaped from a laboratory needs “further investigations.”

However, in a report released Thursday, the WHO -backed team said it had not received any new data that would allow it to better evaluate that theory.

Members of the group from Brazil, China and Russia objected to the calls for further investigation into the “lab leak” theory.

The report also said that available data suggests SARS-COV-2 had a zoonotic origin, which means it spread between animals in a natural setting, but that neither the animal that infected humans nor the place where this infection occurred could be identified.

“At this point, the strongest evidence is still around zoonotic transmission,” said Marietjie Venter, chair of the WHO team and a virologist at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. “However, the precursor viruses that have been identified in bats are definitely not close enough to be the virus that spilled over into humans.”

The report was written by the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), a body of experts from the United States, China and 25 other nations that first came together last year after widespread criticism of a joint WHO -China investigation into the coronavirus’s origins.

WHO officials emphasized that the report contains only the preliminary findings of the group, which was created to advise the global health body’s secretariat. SAGO did not undertake its own studies, but instead reviewed existing research.