The World Health Organization has said all theories on the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak, including the possibility of laboratory leak, are “on the table” and urged Chinese scientists to carry out their own investigations.
WHO officials were answering questions from the press after a classified US intelligence report delivered to the White House on Tuesday was reported to be inconclusive on the question of the origins of the pandemic, in part due to a lack of information from China.
“The current situation is that all of the hypotheses regarding to the origins of the virus are still on the table,” Michael Ryan, the head of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, in response to a question about the laboratory leak theory.
“Some are more likely than others based on the current analysis, but all of those hypotheses require further elucidation and further inquiry and we will go and look where all of those leads take the WHO.”
The US intelligence assessment, which was ordered by Joe Biden 90 days ago, was unable to definitively conclude whether the virus that first emerged in central China had jumped to humans via animals or escaped a highly secure research facility in Wuhan, two US officials familiar with the matter told the Washington Post. They said parts of the report could be declassified in the coming days.
Responding to reports, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, on Wednesday criticised Washington for “politicising” the issue of Covid origin-tracing.”
