Fury over new WHO COV report

The World Health Organization is facing bipartisan criticism for its COVID-origins report, which will say that animals, rather than a lab, are the source of the pandemic.

A draft of the joint report from WHO and China, leaked Monday to The Associated Press, says it’s “extremely unlikely” the coronavirus escaped from a lab.

But Republicans and Democrats alike are slamming the report as biased because of the Chinese Communist Party-led government’s role in the investigation after party officials covered up early case data.

Atlantic Council senior fellow Jamie Metzl, a former staffer to President Biden when Biden led the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, told “60 Minutes” that it’s akin to allowing the Soviet Union to investigate the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

“It was agreed first that China would have veto power over who even got to be on the mission,” said Metzl. “WHO agreed to that. On top of that, the WHO agreed that in most instances, China would do the primary investigation and then just share its findings with these international experts. So these international experts weren’t allowed to do their own primary investigation.”

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted that the investigation was not sufficient, calling WHO “useful idiots” of the Chinese Communist Party.

The report is expected to say COVID-19 likely emerged naturally from bats before being transferred to humans through some other animal.