Panel Investigating COVID-19's Origins Releases First Report
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The World Health Organization (WHO) panel assigned to probe COVID-19's origins released a preliminary report Thursday.
The report states that "currently available epidemiological and sequencing data suggest ancestral strains to SARS-CoV-2 have a zoonotic origin," but also that "neither the virus progenitors nor the natural/intermediate hosts or spill-over event to humans have been identified." It recommends further investigations of "environmental samples collected from specific stalls and drains" at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, which some have pointed to as the place where COVID-19 could have first spilled over from animals to humans. The panel also noted that there hasn't "been any new data made available to evaluate" the theory that COVID-19 first leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, and it recommended "further investigations into this and all other possible pathways."
China has been accused of withholding data that would aid the WHO's investigation. When the WHO sent a team to China last year to investigate the pandemic’s origins and issue an initial report, the Chinese government reportedly objected to any mention of the Wuhan lab leak theory in the report.
News sources across the political spectrum covered the report, and highlighted the panel's conclusion that an animal-to-human spillover remains the most likely theory for the pandemic's genesis. Right-rated outlets often focused on how the panel concluded that the lab leak theory couldn't be ruled out and warrants more investigation.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
The WHO Finally Admits The Lab Leak Might Be Worth Checking OutThe World Health Organization’s new advisory group tasked with investigating the origin of COVID-19 said Thursday that the lab-leak theory warrants another look.
The Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) released its preliminary report Thursday, the first results of its work to find the origin of COVID-19. The report still claims that a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 followed by a spillover from animal to human is the most likely origin for the pandemic, but says that the lab leak theory deserves further scrutiny as well.
“The current available...
From the Center
What the WHO says on how to find COVID-19's origins, prepare for next pandemicA panel of experts drafted by the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and prepare a framework to investigate future outbreaks has published its first report.
The panel, set up in October, comprises 26 experts from around the world and is called the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).
Its work follows a previous WHO-China report on COVID-19, and a U.S. intelligence inquiry, both of which pointed towards a natural origin for the pandemic, likely from bats, rather than a lab...
From the Left
'More work' to be done': Key takeaways from the WHO report on origins of the Covid-19 pandemicA team of international scientists tasked with understanding how the coronavirus pandemic began released their first report on Thursday, saying that all hypothesis remain on the table, including a possible laboratory incident.
The 27-member scientific advisory group convened by the World Health Organization said available data suggests the virus jumped from animals to humans but gaps in "key pieces of data" meant a complete understanding of the pandemic's origins could not be established.
The team, called the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), was formed last year to...
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