WHO Expert Group Unable To Determine Consensus Answer On COVID-19’s Origin

The AP (6/27, Cheng) reported that an expert group charged by the WHO “to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started released its final report Friday, reaching an unsatisfying conclusion: Scientists still aren’t sure how the worst health emergency in a century began.” Marietjie Venter, the group’s chair, said Friday “that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals,” echoing “the conclusion drawn by the first WHO expert group that investigated the pandemic’s origins in 2021.” Venter stated after more than three years of work, “WHO’s expert group was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID-19 was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for hundreds of genetic sequences and more detailed biosecurity information that were made to the Chinese government.” She also “said that the 27-member group did not reach a consensus,” and that three members “asked for their names to be removed from the report.”