Lab Leak Theory requires further probe as 14 countries voice concerns over Covid origin report - WHO

A group of 14 countries has expressed concern about a recent WHO study into the origins of the coronavirus, citing delays and a lack of complete access to data, while the WHO's own leader has called for further research into a hypothesis that the outbreak was caused by a laboratory leak.

The report, which was published on Tuesday, was based on an investigation by the agency's fact-finding mission in Wuhan, China, where the novel virus was identified for the first time.  

After a four-week visit, the WHO team of 17 international experts concluded in the study that COVID-19 emerged from a lab leak was "highly doubtful," a position first advanced by the US last year.

China has categorically denied the allegations. Instead  the scientists claimed that the virus was “likely to very likely” introduced to humans through an intermediate host, and that the virus was “possible-to-likely” transmitted to humans from animals.

Later on Tuesday, the 14 countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia and Israel said in a statement that they “fully” supported the WHO’s efforts to bring an end to the pandemic, including understanding how it “started and spread”.

But they added it was “essential that we voice our shared concerns that the international expert study on the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples”.

Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia and the United Kingdom also co-signed statement.

Separately on Tuesday, WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also demanded further research to reach “more robust conclusions”.

“I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough,” he said during a news briefing on Tuesday.

“Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy,” Tedros added.

China’s foreign ministry hit back at the perceived criticism from the WHO chief, saying that Beijing had fully demonstrated “its openness, transparency and responsible attitude”.

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“To politicise this issue will only severely hinder global cooperation in study of origins, jeopardize anti-pandemic cooperation, and cost more lives,” the ministry said in a statement.

The European Union called the report a “helpful first step” and highlighted “the need for further work”, urging “relevant authorities” to help, but without naming China.

Peter Ben Embarek, a member of the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus, attends the WHO-China joint study news conference in Wuhan, China [File: Aly Song/Reuters]

Discussing its findings, Peter Ben Embarek, head of the research team that travelled to China, said the report “is not a static product, but a dynamic one”, adding that there will be new analysis.

According to Embarek, there was no proof or evidence suggesting that one of the laboratories in Wuhan, a city housing virology facilities, could have been involved in a leak accident.

“It’s not impossible,” he said, pointing to the fact that accidents in laboratories have already happened in the past. “But we have not been able to hear or see or look at anything that would warrant a different conclusion,” he added.

Since the WHO mission has yet to determine when or how the virus began to spread in people, tensions will remain about how the pandemic began – and whether China aided or hampered attempts to find out, as the US has said.

“We were never forced to withdraw crucial elements from our report,” Embarek said, despite political pressure from “all sides.”

“Where we didn't have complete access to all the raw data we needed, it was put as a guideline for future studies,” he said.