![]() "Part of being a scientist is you get comfortable with some things never being explained," Rasmussen said. In lieu of immediate answers, it will be tempting for many to "put the blame somewhere," including a tantalizing but ultimately far-fetched lab-leak theory, Racaniello said. "Sometimes it takes years and sometimes you may never find the actual source." Angela Rasumssen, a virologist and affiliate at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security and incoming research scientist at VIDO-InterVac. "This investigation is not done," said Dr. While the new report is important, Racaniello said, "It doesn't change much, except to tell the people who have conspiracy theories or accident theories that it's not true." People who don't study viruses may not realize that there's a common and predictable link between animals and viruses in humans, Racaniello explained. Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions, with additional missions involving specialist experts, which Tedros said he was ready to deploy. While the lab leak remains the least likely hypothesis, "I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough," Tedros said Tuesday. The team ranked the four scenarios in order of likelihood, finding that spillover virus transmission via an intermediary animal was "likely to very likely." Direct transmission from bats to humans was "possible to likely." Virus introduction through frozen animal products or foods was considered to be "possible."Ī laboratory origin of the pandemic was "extremely unlikely" and the only one of the four scenarios that the team did not recommend scientists investigate further. This highly political theory, which was previously rejected by experts at the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, proposes that SARS-CoV-2 escaped a laboratory in Wuhan through negligent biosafety practices. Researchers pointed to the 2003 SARS outbreak, which was caused by a close cousin of the virus that causes COVID-19 and eventually traced back to a single population of horseshoe crab bats. If previous infectious disease investigations are any clue, the virus' origins could remain shrouded in mystery. "We may never know exactly what happened." "You're trying to reconstruct events from a year and a half ago with incomplete sampling and data," Lipkin explained. Reaching a definitive conclusion about the virus' origins might take years, or might not be possible at all. "First and foremost is the idea that this originated in a bat and moved through some intermediate host that allowed it to adapt and become better capable of infecting humans," Lipkin said. Ian Lipkin, director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity, called the report "extraordinarily detailed and exhaustive." While scientists previously believed several transmission pathways for the virus to be most probable prior to the Wuhan trip, there's now data to substantiate those theories. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images, FILEĪlthough the report did not contain any startling new revelations, Dr. The joint statement from the United States and other countries noted that their governments are concerned about the report in regards to access, transparency and timeliness, stating, "Scientific missions like these should be able to do their work under conditions that produce independent and objective recommendations and findings." "We have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must continue to follow the science and leave no stone unturned as we do." Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said during a Tuesday press conference in Geneva. ![]() "This report is a very important beginning, but it is not the end," Dr. Many of the report's conclusions were already discussed during a press conference back in February, at the conclusion of the weeks-long investigation. 10, is considered a first step in what will likely become a years-long investigation into the virus' origins. ![]() The review, which was conducted by a WHO team of international experts in Wuhan, China, between Jan. At the same time, the United States and 13 other countries raised concerns about the report in a joint statement, arguing that the WHO team was "significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples." The World Health Organization and China released a long-awaited joint report into the origins of COVID-19 on Tuesday, pointing to transmission from bats to another animal and subsequently to humans as the most likely way the pandemic began. ![]()
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