by Tim Stickings at The Daily Mail
The head of the WHO today dismissed his own agency’s expert report into the origins of Covid-19 which the US has rejected as a political whitewash after it described the lab-leak theory touted by Washington as ‘extremely unlikely’.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused China of withholding data from a WHO panel and said the lab-leak theory should be studied further, only moments after the publication of the long-awaited report which rejected the idea altogether.
‘Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation,’ said Tedros.
‘I expect future collaborative studies to include more timely and comprehensive data sharing,’ he added – in an astonishing rebuke to China for a figure who has long been accused of being too close to Beijing.
In response to the report’s publication, the United States and 13 allies on Tuesday jointly voiced concern and urged China to provide ‘full access’ to experts.
‘We join in expressing shared concerns regarding the recent WHO-convened study in China,’ said the statement issued by the United States with allies including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s top diplomats have dismissed the report as biased towards China, with former secretary of state Mike Pompeo calling it a ‘sham’ and current envoy Antony Blinken saying that ‘Beijing apparently helped to write it’.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, pictured shaking hands with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last January, has been accused of being too close to Beijing
Mission leader Peter Ben Embarek (pictured) said the virus could have originated in China and spread abroad before it was first detected in Wuhan
Verdict: The WHO report says Covid-19 is ‘likely to very likely’ to have jumped to humans via a bat and another animal, might alternatively have jumped to humans in a single step, could possibly have via imported food and is ‘extremely unlikely’ to have leaked from a laboratory
Pompeo branded the report a ‘disinformation campaign’ by China’s Communist party and the WHO, adding that the Wuhan Institute of Virology ‘remains the most likely source of the virus – and WHO is complicit’.
One of the team’s investigators has already said that China refused to give raw data on early Covid-19 cases to the team probing the origins of the pandemic.
But China praised the experts for their ‘scientific, diligent and professional spirit’, saying any further research should take place in other countries where it claims the virus could have originated.
The 120-page report was drafted by WHO scientists and their Chinese counterparts after an expert mission to Wuhan earlier this year which was plagued by doubts about China’s transparency.
The report – which says that the names of the 10-strong panel were presented to Beijing for approval – praises Wuhan’s labs as ‘well-managed’ facilities where the virus is unlikely to have leaked.
But it gives more credence to Beijing’s pet theory that the virus could have originated…
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