Origins of COVID-19 still unclear according to final report from WHO expert group

The Associated Press

· Posted: Jun 27, 2025 1:27 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

An adept radical charged by the World Health Organization to analyse however the COVID-19 pandemic started released its last study connected Friday, reaching an unsatisfying conclusion: Scientists inactive aren't definite however the worst wellness exigency successful a period began.

At a quality briefing, Marietjie Venter, the group's chair, said that astir technological information supports the proposal that the caller coronavirus jumped to humans from animals.

That was besides the decision drawn by the archetypal WHO adept radical that investigated the pandemic's origins successful 2021, erstwhile scientists concluded the microorganism apt dispersed from bats to humans, via different intermediary animal. At the time, WHO said a laboratory leak was "extremely unlikely."   

Venter said that aft much than 3 years of work, WHO's adept radical was incapable to get the indispensable information to measure whether oregon not COVID-19 was the effect of a laboratory accident, contempt repeated requests for hundreds of familial sequences and much elaborate biosecurity accusation that were made to the Chinese government.

"Therefore, this proposal could not beryllium investigated oregon excluded," she said. "It was deemed to beryllium precise speculative, based connected governmental opinions and not backed up by science."

She said that the 27-member radical did not scope a consensus; 1 subordinate resigned earlier this week and 3 others asked for their names to beryllium removed from the report.

Venter said determination was nary grounds to beryllium that COVID-19 had been manipulated successful a lab, nor was determination immoderate denotation that the microorganism had been spreading earlier December 2019 anyplace extracurricular of China.

"Until much technological information becomes available, the origins of however SARS-CoV-2 entered quality populations volition stay inconclusive," Venter said, referring to the technological sanction for the COVID-19 virus.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was a "moral imperative" to find however COVID began, noting that the microorganism killed astatine slightest 20 cardinal people, wiped astatine slightest $10 trillion US from the planetary system and upended the lives of billions.

Last year, The Associated Press recovered that the Chinese authorities froze meaningful home and planetary efforts to hint the virus's origins successful the archetypal weeks of the outbreak successful 2020 and that WHO itself whitethorn person missed aboriginal opportunities to analyse however COVID-19 began.

U.S. President Donald Trump has agelong blamed the emergence of the coronavirus connected a laboratory mishap successful China, portion a U.S. quality investigation recovered determination was insufficient grounds to beryllium the theory.

Chinese officials person repeatedly dismissed the thought that the pandemic could person started successful a lab, saying that the hunt for its origins should beryllium conducted successful different countries.

Last September, researchers zeroed successful connected a abbreviated database of animals they deliberation mightiness person dispersed COVID-19 to humans, including raccoon dogs, civet cats and bamboo rats.