WASHINGTON — The World Health Organization is denying a report made by a top scientific journal that it had 'quietly shelved' an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
. The scientific consensus, however, generally backs the idea that COVID-19 emerged via zoonosis, or animal-to-human transmission, as did earlier viruses including HIV and Ebola.
But the resulting report was criticized for not contemplating more seriously the hypothesis that the virus originated in a laboratory as a result of an accident in the midst of controversial “gain of function” research that boosts pathogens in order to study how they may evolve in nature.that it was"premature" to rule out the lab-leak hypothesis.
Van Kerkhove also said WHO would continue to press China to be more forthcoming with on-the-ground access. “We continue to ask for more cooperation and collaboration with our colleagues in China to advance studies that need to take place in China,” she said during the briefing. Skeptics saw the entire back-and-forth as evidence of confused priorities. “The article, and the response to it, seems to provide little clarity about who's calling the shots and why they're calling those shots,” mathematical biologist Alex Washburne wrote to Yahoo News in a text message.
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