The World Health Organization’s lead investigator into the origins of the coronavirus has suggested earlier this year that the virus might have originated from a lab after contending in February that the lab leak hypothesis is unlikely.
What he said: Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, who led the WHO probe in China, told Danish media in an interview this spring that “an employee who was infected in the field by taking samples falls under one of the probable hypotheses.”
His remarks were revealed on the Danish network TV2 as part of a new documentary that aired on Thursday.
“In that case, it would then be a laboratory worker instead of a random villager or other person who has regular contact with bats. So it is actually in the probable category,” Embarek said in the documentary.
Why it matters? In February, the WHO team that went to China to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, that the lab leak theory is unlikely.
“The findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population,” Embarek said at the time.
The WHO issued a statement on Tuesday, confirming that he was “accurately quoted” in the Danish documentary.
“On review of the phase one study report, WHO determined that there was insufficient scientific evidence to rule any of the hypotheses out,” the statement notes. “Specifically, in order to address the ‘lab hypothesis,’ it is important to have access to all data and consider scientific best practice and look at the mechanisms WHO already has in place.”
In the statement, the agency also announced new steps in its effort to determine the origins of the coronavirus.
The WHO says that it will examine now move to “raw data from the earliest cases and sera from potential early cases in 2019,” pointing out that “[a]ccess to data is critically important for evolving our understanding of science.”
The agency also called “for all governments to depoliticize the situation and cooperate to accelerate the origins studies.”
“Searching for the origins of a novel virus is an immensely difficult scientific task that takes time. WHO is committed to following the science, and we call on all governments to put differences aside and work together to provide all data and access required so that the next series of studies can be commenced as soon as possible,” the WHO concluded.
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