The World Health Organization’s new advisory group tasked with investigating the origin of COVID-19 said Thursday that the lab-leak theory warrants another look.
The Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) released its preliminary report Thursday, the first results of its work to find the origin of COVID-19. The report still claims that a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 followed by a spillover from animal to human is the most likely origin for the pandemic, but says that the lab leak theory deserves further scrutiny as well.
WHO panel says more investigation is needed of a potential lab-accident origin of the pandemic, along with pursuing an origin in nature. https://t.co/zYQJlc8dyQ
— Alison Young (@alisonannyoung) June 9, 2022
“The current available data on the closest related SARS-like viruses and susceptibility of many animal species to SARS-CoV-2 suggest a zoonotic source,” the report says. “The SAGO notes that there has not been any new data made available to evaluate the laboratory as a pathway of SARS-CoV-2 into the human population and recommends further investigations into this and all other possible pathways.”
The SAGO said there would need to be more information and data turned over to properly investigate a potential laboratory origin. The Chinese Communist Party has given no indication it is willing to cooperate with legitimate investigations of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Members of the SAGO from China, Brazil and Russia rejected the possibility that the pandemic emerged from a lab. (RELATED: Not Just China: The US Government, Universities Are Hiding Evidence On The Origin Of COVID-19, Experts Allege)
The SAGO is the second attempt for the WHO to investigate the origin of COVID-19. Last year, the international body sent an investigative team to China to investigate the pandemic’s outbreak, but that team was compromised by the CCP and was unable to legitimately investigate the Wuhan lab.