US-China tensions over ‘lab leak’ theory hamper hunt for Covid-19 origins
- Scientists call for less politics, more answers as multiple theories remain in play nearly two years after the virus emerged
- Failure of US intelligence report to pin pandemic on Wuhan laboratory will not make the debate go away, they fear
But medical and global health experts say the inconclusive findings highlight the need for more scientific research and transparency, as the clock ticks towards two years since the pathogen was thought to have begun spreading in people and multiple theories remain in play about how that happened.
“We should empower the WHO to allow this UN body to investigate on-site in any country, whenever it wants. We should first depoliticise this debate, which needs answers to questions for the sake of global security,” said Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva.
“It is not the role of any intelligence services from the US nor from anywhere to embrace such issues,” he said, adding that China, which recently rebuffed a WHO plan for more research, had not been “mature”.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified summary of the report, delivered to Biden last week. The intelligence agencies did come to “broad agreement” that the virus was not developed as a biological weapon and that China’s officials did not have advance knowledge of the virus before the outbreak.