A team from the World Health Organization investigating the origin of the coronavirus pandemic has the possibility that the virus leaked from a laboratory near Wuhan, China, during a news conference on Tuesday.
Instead, the coronavirus probably spread from animal to human, said Peter Ben Embarek, the expert on food safety and animal diseases. The WHO and China have faced strong criticism from around the world over their pandemic response, as China banned WHO investigators from entering Wuhan for months; they finally arrived in mid-January this year.
“Our initial findings suggest that launching through an intermediate host species is the most likely pathway and that more studies and more specific, targeted research are needed,” Embarek told reporters.
WHO REFUSES TO CONFIRM CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA IF PRAYER IMPROVES
“However, the findings suggest that the hypothesis of laboratory incidents is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population,” Embarek said. “Therefore, it is not a hypothesis that we recommend proposing future studies … after understanding the origin of the virus.”
Embarek made the assessment at the end of a visit to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where a team of scientists is investigating the possible origin of the coronavirus. The first cases were discovered in the city in December 2019.
Peter Ben Embarek of the World Health Organization team holds up a chart showing how the virus is transmitted during a joint news conference held on Tuesday at the end of the WTO mission in Wuhan, China.
(AP Photo / Ng Han Guan)
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has collected extensive virus samples, leading to allegations that it may have caused the original outbreak by licking the virus in the surrounding community. China has strongly rejected this possibility, citing other theories that the virus may have originated elsewhere. The team is considering several theories about how the disease first landed in humans.
DOES THE COMMUNIST REGIME LIGHT UP IN THE WORLD?
The WHO team uses experts from ten countries. The mission is intended as a first step in investigating the origin of the virus, which is thought to have originated in bats, before being transmitted to humans by another species of wild animal, such as a pangolin or bamboo rat that considered exotic. delicacy by some in China.
A view of the P4 laboratory inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology is seen after a visit by the World Health Organization team in Wuhan last week.
(AP Photo / Ng Han Guan)
Transmission through trade in frozen products was also a possible possibility, Embarek said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Critics of the WHO say China has an extraordinary influence on the world health body. President Biden has said he will rejoin the WHO and prevent the withdrawal of former President Donald Trump from the controversial UN body due to the handling of the early days of the COVID-19 crisis.
Adam Shaw of the Associated Press and Fox News contributed to this report.