WHO expert backs follow-up coronavirus mission to China

Virologist Marion Koopmans says the trip could be helpful to gather additional information on the origins of COVID-19.

A leading scientist on the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 mission to China has said a follow-up trip could be helpful to gather additional research on the origins of the disease, but should be separate from any audit of information provided by Beijing. The comments from Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans came on Tuesday after the United States called for international experts to be allowed to evaluate the source of the coronavirus and the early days of the outbreak, in a second phase of the WHO’s investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. Koopmans was part of the WHO-led team which spent four weeks in China earlier this year and in March published a report jointly with Chinese scientists that said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.