Report from WHO team finds virus likely jumped from animals, not from lab leak
By Peter Sullivan - 03/30/21 10:38 AM EDT A report from a team of international experts convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that the coronavirus most likely jumped from animals to humans and calls a lab leak theory "extremely unlikely."
The report, written jointly with Chinese scientists, does not reach a definitive conclusion on one origin but called it “a likely to very likely pathway†that the virus started in bats or another animal, then jumped to another animal before going to humans.
Going directly from the bat to humans is also “possible to likely,†the report said.
But the lab incident theory, which gained ground in recent days after being backed by former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, was viewed as "extremely unlikely."
Still, the U.S. government and some outside experts have raised doubts about the independence of the report and whether the Chinese government was fully forthcoming with information.
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https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/545536-report-from-who-team-finds-virus-likely-jumped-from-animals-not-from-lab
