We'll never know the full truth about COVID-19 origins. Political infighting won't help.

With recent revelations about the Department of Energy now saying that COVID-19 most likely came from a lab leak, and Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and their own version of the COVID-19 select committee, the raging debate about COVID origins has come back to the forefront. 

This is a debate that stirs emotions like few other aspects of the pandemic. The truth is, we will never know the full truth about the origins of a virus that has killed millions, decimated a global economy, and set children’s education and development back – and that’s exactly the problem.  

From the very beginnings of this once-in-a-century pandemic, China's rulers have demonstrated a stunning lack of transparency regarding what they knew about the virus – from its likely origins to its symptoms to how it was being spread.  

This lack of transparency has caused irreparable planetary harm, and yet the World Health Organization still hasn’t shown itself willing to hold China to account, or to put in place measures to ensure that we have the necessary sharing of critical information when inevitable crises occur in the future.