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Coronavirus pandemic: All stories
ChinaScience

Coronavirus: all origin theories still on the table, WHO chief says

  • Lead investigator says it is extremely unlikely the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan because facility did not have the pathogen
  • Team expected to publish summary of trip report next week

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WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says all theories about the origin of the coronavirus need further analysis. Photo: Reuters
Simone McCarthy
All theories about the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19 are still under investigation, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday after international researchers wrapped up a near month-long trip to the site of the disease’s first outbreak.
“Some questions have been raised as to whether some hypotheses have been discarded ... I wish to confirm that all hypotheses remain open and require further analysis and studies,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“Some of that work may lie outside the remit and scope of this mission. We have always said that this mission would not find all the answers, but it has added important information that takes us closer to understanding the origins of the Covid-19 virus.”

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WHO ends Covid-19 mission in Wuhan, says lab leak ‘extremely unlikely’

WHO ends Covid-19 mission in Wuhan, says lab leak ‘extremely unlikely’
The comments came after Washington said it would need to independently confirm the findings of the team, which concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” the virus could have spread after a laboratory accident.
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Citing concerns over China’s lack of transparency, a State Department spokesman said on Tuesday that the United States would confer with its allies and the intelligence community “rather than rush to conclusions”.

The 14 members of the WHO team arrived in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last month, conducting site visits and reviewing research by Chinese scientists.

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They said evidence suggested the virus originated in bats, and identified four ways it might have spread to humans.

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