WHO still seeking COVID-19 origin, says all scenarios ‘remain on the table’
Global News
The World Health Organization's probe into the cause of COVID-19 has not resulted in a definitive reason, with its director-general saying all scenarios 'remain on the table.'
The World Health Organization says its probe into the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which caused the COVID-19 pandemic, is still ongoing, and despite a three-year investigation, has yet to find the exact cause.
“As things stand, all hypotheses must remain on the table, including zoonotic spillover and lab leak,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing Friday.
His comments came after a report published Friday from the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), which said “available evidence” supports the hypothesis that the coronavirus jumped from animals to humans, likely from bats “or through an intermediate host,” through a process called zoonotic spillover.
SAGO is a panel of 27 independent, international, multidisciplinary experts formed by the World Health Organization to advise on technical and scientific considerations regarding emerging and re-emerging pathogens, like COVID-19.
“While most available and accessible published scientific evidence supports hypothesis #1, zoonotic transmission from animals, possibly from bats or an intermediate host to humans, SAGO is not currently able to conclude exactly when, where and how SARS-CoV-2 first entered the human population,” the report reads.
It notes the closest known “precursor strains” were identified in bats in China and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, but says the strains are too distantly related to the virus to be the direct source of the pandemic.
The report notes that some of the difficulty in determining a cause is due to China not having shared certain information, which also has made it difficult to examine the second hypothesis suggesting an accidental lab leak.
The WHO requested the country share hundreds of genetic sequences from individuals with COVID-19 early in the pandemic, as well as more detailed information about the animals sold at markets in Wuhan, and information on work done and biosafety conditions at laboratories in Wuhan.
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