Why is the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis back on the table

In its quest to find out the origin of the Covid-19 epidemic, the World Health Organization on Thursday asked all countries, especially China, where a laboratory leak is suspected, to release “all virus data”.

“To specifically address the ‘lab hypothesis’, it is important to have access to all preliminary data, and to consider best scientific practices,” the WHO said in a statement, noting that China had hinted that the WHO was acting within a political framework. It relates to studies on the origin of the coronavirus.” “Sharing data and allowing samples to be re-examined (…) is nothing more than what we urge all countries, including China, to support so that we can move forward with the study of the origins (the epidemic) quickly and efficiently. The World Health Organization added.

For Peter Embark, head of the delegation of international scientists sent by the organization to China to detect the origin of the Covid virus, the virus leaking from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first cases were discovered at the end of 2019, is one of the “possible” assumptions.

“A (laboratory) employee who was infected in the field during sampling falls under one possible hypothesis. This is where the virus is transmitted directly from bats to humans,” he told Danish public broadcaster TV2.

In a documentary called “The Virus Mystery – A Dane Seeks the Truth in China” broadcast Thursday on the Danish channel, the world has sharply criticized Beijing. According to him, it was difficult for his team to discuss this theory with Chinese scientists.

The WHO delegation received permission to visit two laboratories where research on bats is being carried out. “We had the right to a presentation, then we were able to talk and ask the questions we wanted to ask, but we didn’t have the opportunity to refer to any documents,” the insured said during these visits.

The only people who are likely to come close to bats are lab workers

He added that none of the bats live in the wild in the Wuhan area, and that the only people who are likely to have come into close contact with bats suspected of being infected with the SARS-Cove-2 virus are employees of the city’s laboratories.

“In order to be able to examine the ‘lab hypothesis’, it is important to have access to all preliminary data,” the World Health Organization said in a press release Thursday evening. She adds that analyzing and improving security protocols in all labs around the world “including in China is critical to our collective security.”

The organization insists that it is of “vital importance” to know how the Covid-19 epidemic began. “Access to data should in no way be a political issue.” The organization added that based on “what we have already learned, the next round of studies will include a review of preliminary data for the first cases and the first possible cases in 2019”.

It calls on all countries to overcome their differences and work together “in order to provide all the data and all the necessary access, so that the next round of studies can start as soon as possible.”

China opposes new investigation

China has already rejected the World Health Organization’s call for a new investigation on its soil to find the origins of Covid-19, urging a “scientific” rather than “political” approach. “We oppose the politicization of asset search (…) and the abandonment of the joint China-WHO report published after the January visit of international experts to Wuhan,” said Ma Zhaoxu, vice minister. Foreign Affairs. We support scientific research.