China holds the answers

The World Health Organization’s joint investigation with China into the origins of the coronavirus looked into a dark chasm and saw darkness. The report offers theories about pathways of a zoonotic spillover from animals to people, but not a single animal source among thousands has tested positive with SARS-CoV-2.

The investigators did not conduct a forensic probe into the possibility of a laboratory leak. The origins of the pandemic remain obscure. Finding the answer is as important and elusive as ever.

Overshadowing the whole exercise is the unspoken power of the Chinese party-state to determine the outcome. China has strenuously denied that the virus may have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was carrying out risky gain-of-function experiments on bat coronaviruses.

The joint investigation—17 Chinese and 17 international scientists working over 28 days in January and February—ran into many frustrating unknowns. The Huanan food market in Wuhan sold seafood and wild animals, but “no firm conclusion” can be drawn about its role because there were also virus cases with no connection to the market, the report says. Viral genomes and epidemiological data showed “no obvious clustering” by “exposure to raw meat or furry animals.”

The Chinese and WHO scientists insisted the most likely pathway of the virus was a zoonotic spillover, either directly or indirectly from an animal species to humans. They called a laboratory leak “an extremely unlikely pathway.” But the WHO director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, disagreed with the team, saying the laboratory leak “requires further investigation.” He declared that all hypotheses remain on the table, and he is ready to deploy specialists to probe further.

China has a responsibility to open its doors. This is not a blame game, but an essential investigation into the cause of this pandemic to make another one less likely.