Covid origins: Lab leak theory needs 'further investigations', says WHO
Zee News
WHO said the theory that the Covid virus might have escaped from a laboratory needs ‘further investigations’, reports IANS.
After more than two years, the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic still remains a mystery. In a new report, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the theory that the Covid virus might have escaped from a laboratory needs ‘further investigations’. The origins of Covid has remained the subject of a political and scientific debate with scientists and politicians globally contending that the coronavirus jumped into people from bats, or have been leaked from a laboratory. The UN health agency in its initial assessment stated that it was "extremely unlikely" that Covid might have spilled from a lab.
The new report, by Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), a WHO expert panel established in 2021 to research the causes behind the pandemic, shared that "key pieces of data are not yet available for a complete understanding of how the Covid-19 pandemic began".
The report, however, suggests that the virus probably came from animals, likely bats. But it also did not rule out the possibility of a lab leak, citing lack of clear data.
"At the present time, currently available epidemiological and sequencing data suggest ancestral strains to SARS-CoV-2 have a zoonotic origin with the closest genetically related viruses being beta coronaviruses, identified in Rhinolophus bats in China in 2013 (96.1 per cent) and Laos in 2020 (96.8 per cent)," the report said.
However, "this preliminary report is not intended to, nor does it, provide conclusive findings on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 because more information is needed from the studies recommended in this report".
