The World Health Organization said in a 78-page report released last week that it cannot pinpoint the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China, five years ago — in part because of a lack of cooperation on the part of Chinese officials.
Despite three official WHO visits to China, Beijing refused requests for key data that investigators sought for clues to the global pandemic that officially killed 7 million people and which, according to the report, is more likely to have caused at least 20 million deaths since late 2019.
The WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, known as SAGO, has been searching for the COVID origin since its formation in November 2021.
Its most recent report concluded that the cause is “inconclusive.”
The SAGO is made up of 27 international scientific experts, and all but three signed the report.
Three scientists from China, Russia and Cambodia declined to be listed as authors, the report said.
“This is not solely a scientific endeavor, it is a moral and ethical imperative,” the report said.
“Understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it sparked a pandemic is needed to help prevent future pandemics, save lives and livelihoods, and reduce global suffering. Ultimately, this pursuit underscores our collective responsibility to safeguard human health and well-being.”
SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID.
The report is an update of an earlier 2022 assessment and is based on scientific papers and reports, available intelligence statements and reports and scientific presentations to the experts.
The study concluded that the panel of experts “is not currently able to conclude exactly when, where and how SARS-CoV-2 first entered the human population.”
Raw data from China was unavailable to the experts, who offered four hypotheses on the pandemic’s origin.
The two “main” theories are a natural zoonotic source, such as wild animals or an intermediate host that infected humans, and second, “an accidental laboratory-related event, which may have involved exposure to the virus during field research or a breach in laboratory biosafety procedures.”
Also theorized is the SARS-CoV-2 infecting animal markets via cold chain processes and subsequent infection in humans through contact with products sold at markets, something China’s government has promoted.
Last is deliberate manipulation of the virus in a laboratory, followed by a laboratory biosafety breach, the report said.
On the laboratory manipulation theory, the report said the experts studied the virus genome but were unable to find scientific evidence of lab manipulation over evidence that the mutations could have happened naturally.
However, on wild animal transfer from Wuhan, China’s wild animal market, the report said, “evidence needed to confirm this hypothesis is lacking.”
To confirm the laboratory leak theory, much of the information needed has not been provided despite several requests from the Chinese government.
The panel sought health records of staff and documentation on biosafety and biosecurity practices and procedures at labs in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Centers for Disease Control in Wuhan.
“Without information to fully assess the nature of the work on coronaviruses in Wuhan laboratories, nor information about the conditions under which this work was done, it is not possible for SAGO to assess whether the first human infection(s) may have resulted due to a research related event or breach in laboratory biosafety,” the report said.
“It can therefore not be ruled out, nor can it be proven until more information is provided.”
The experts need data and findings on “research-related accidents or breaches in biosafety, including evidence regarding studies that may have involved culture and/or research on immediate genetic precursors to SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory.”
The panel concluded that virus “spillover from animals to humans” is the most likely hypothesis until China provides more information, something unlikely to take place.
China has blocked access to research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and instead has claimed the virus was introduced to China from the U.S. military, a charge the U.S. government has denied.
The WHO report reflects divisions in the U.S. intelligence community over the virus origin.
Major intelligence services, however, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI and Energy Department, now believe the most likely source is a laboratory leak.
For several years, the CIA said it favored the wild animal origin theory, but recently changed its view to a laboratory leak of the virus as the most likely cause.
A State Department report made public in January 2021 provided the first details of military work carried out by the People’s Liberation Army at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The report said the Chinese Communist Party “systematically prevented a transparent and thorough investigation of the COVID-19 pandemic’s origin, choosing instead to devote enormous resources to deceit and disinformation.”
“Scientists in China have researched animal-derived coronaviruses under conditions that increased the risk for accidental and potentially unwitting exposure,” according to the report.
“The CCP’s deadly obsession with secrecy and control comes at the expense of public health in China and around the world,” the report said.
The report said several researchers at the WIV became sick with COVID symptoms in the fall of 2019, before the first reported COVID case.
“This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli’s public claim that there was ‘zero infection’ among the WIV’s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses,” the report said.
Several previous virus outbreaks in China and elsewhere were the result of accidental infections in laboratories, including the 2004 outbreak of SARS.
Since 2016, WIV researchers have conducted experiments involving RaTG13, the bat coronavirus identified by the WIV in January 2020 as its closest sample to SARS-CoV-2 (96.2% similar),” the report said.
The WIV also conducted extensive “gain-of-function” research to engineer chimeric viruses and has not disclosed its record about the work.
“WHO investigators must have access to the records of the WIV’s work on bat and other coronaviruses before the COVID-19 outbreak,” the report said.
Secret military activity at the WIV included classified research and laboratory animal experiments since at least 2017, the report said.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
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