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It is still not clear exactly how the coronavirus could jump from animals to humans. Now the WHO’s chief investigator has spoken out on Danish television about the results of the investigation so far, And apparently a theory is gaining strength that the virus could be linked to a research lab after all.
WHO suspects Corona pandemic link to Chinese lab
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For a long time, WHO and other scientists had doubted that the corona virus could have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. But now the organization is announcing its latest findings. And these findings are quite interesting. Because in the meantime at least a connection with a Chinese laboratory is no longer improbable. Now WHO chief investigator Peter Ben Embarek has even spoken out on Danish television about the origin of the coronavirus. The WHO specialist believes that first contact with the virus in a laboratory is a real possibility. However, Ben Embarek believes that the infection may well have originated while laboratory staff were collecting samples. “A staff member infected in the field through sampling falls under one of the likely hypotheses,” the expert believes.
Did an employee become infected while collecting samples?
It is hypothesized that for laboratory work with bats, the animals should be captured in the wild. In the process, the virus is then believed to have jumped from the bats to humans via an unknown intermediate host. A human error in the laboratory of Wuhan itself, the expert still sees as unlikely.
However, there is no solid evidence for the theory of the 13-member research team. The researchers had complained, among other things, that their work on the ground in China had been repeatedly obstructed by the Chinese authorities.