In its report on the expert mission in Wuhan, China, the World Health Organization (WHO) assumes that the novel coronavirus is transmitted to humans by an intermediate host.
According to the WHO report presented today in Geneva, the pathogen was „likely to very likely“ from the bat to another animal and from there to humans. The thesis that the virus escaped from a laboratory, however, was described as „extremely unlikely“.
Almost three million dead
International experts in various disciplines such as zoology and epidemiology searched for the origin of the pandemic for several weeks in January. To do this, they traveled to Wuhan, where the first human infections were registered at the end of 2019.
The virus quickly spread around the world. In the meantime, more than 127 million infections have been detected; more than 2.78 million infected people died.
The WHO mission started with some delay and the report was not presented. Research into the origin of the pandemic is politically sensitive. Under the new President Joe Biden, the USA have repeatedly expressed fears that the WHO report would not be able to disclose all of the findings and indications. Beijing, on the other hand, emphasizes that the WHO mission in Wuhan was only possible thanks to China’s scientific cooperation.
