Coronavirus is unlikely to have escaped from a government lab in Wuhan, China, experts with the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday following an investigation into the virus’s origins.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific targeted research,\u201d\u00a0Peter Ben Embarek, an expert with the WHO food safety and animal diseases division, said in an early morning press conference.<\/p>\n
A team from the WHO arrived in Wuhan on Jan. 14, more than a year after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the city, to investigate the lab in a bid to learn about how the virus’s origin and how it spreads.<\/p>\n
There was speculation early in the pandemic, much of which was fueled by former President Trump, that the virus was either deliberately manufactured or leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population,” Embarek said, adding that it does not warrant future study.<\/p>\n
WHO on the upswing:<\/strong>\u00a0Trump frequently attacked the WHO as being too soft on China and announced the U.S.\u2019s intent to withdraw. The Biden administration announced it is scrapping that move and staying in the WHO.<\/p>\n