After the latest statements from US authorities about a laboratory failure as a possible origin of the corona pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) asked the USA to provide the underlying information. Inquiries had been made to the US diplomatic mission in Geneva, but no reports had been received so far, WHO expert Maria von Kerkhove said today.
FBI chief Christopher Wray told Fox News on Tuesday: “The FBI has been assuming for some time that the origin of the pandemic is most likely a possible laboratory incident in Wuhan.” It is “about a possible leak in a laboratory controlled by the Chinese government”. According to a report in the “Wall Street Journal”, the UN Department of Energy is now also assuming a possible laboratory failure, albeit with a “low” degree of certainty. The relationship between the United States and China is currently heavily strained for various reasons.
Different assessments of the origin
Other US agencies, like many scientists, remain of the view that the virus was likely transmitted naturally. According to this, the first infections occurred when people in a market in Wuhan, China, contracted animals sold there.
Scientists have been searching for the origin of the pandemic for three years. A WHO delegation was in China in early 2021, and Beijing had refused further trips by international experts. The WHO has recommended several investigations in China and elsewhere, but so far these have not been delivered. China categorically denies that the virus could have escaped from a laboratory. In Wuhan, where corona diseases first appeared at the end of 2019, research is being carried out on corona viruses in a laboratory.
The origin must be found in order to prevent future pandemics as far as possible, emphasized WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The WHO continues to urge China to transparently share data, conduct the necessary investigations and publish the results,” he said on Friday. “To this end, I have written to and spoken to senior Chinese politicians on several occasions, most recently a few weeks ago. Until then, all hypotheses about the origin of the virus remain on the table.”
