WHO team may scrap interim report on Covid origins; scientists demand 'unrestricted probe'

Amid mounting tensions between the US and China, a World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of Coronavirus is reportedly planning to scrap an interim report on its recent mission to Wuhan, where the first case of COVID-19 was reported.

This comes after an open letter by a group of two dozen scientists called for a new international inquiry into the origins of the deadly disease, suggesting that the recent study was compromised.  

They stated that the WHO team had "insufficient access to adequately investigate possible sources of the new virus, including whether it slipped from a laboratory".

"The intermediate and final reports of the joint study rely on a consensus among the 17 Chinese members and 17 international members of the joint team. It is likely, therefore, that reports resulting from this process will ultimately represent a necessary compromise based partly on political and other limitations." 

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A team of WHO experts, which had visited Wuhan last month, said that there is no evidence of coronavirus circulation in any animal species in China.

During a press conference, Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the WHO mission in Wuhan, stated four hypotheses on how the virus spread but reiterated that "laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population".

"It has not been possible to pinpoint any animal species as a potential reservoir for this disease, and they indicate that currently and also back in 2019 it does not look like there was the circulation of the virus in any animal species in the country," he said.

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Laboratory incident unlikely: WHO team

Embarek further said that "four main hypotheses or groups of hypotheses" have been identified on how the COVID-19 virus might have introduced among humans.

"Our initial findings suggest that introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely passway and one that will require more studies and more specific targeted research ... The findings suggest that a laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population," the WHO expert said.

Speaking on whether the virus got leaked from Wuhan's institute of virology, Embarek said, "We also looked at Wuhan's institute of virology... the laboratory and the state of the laboratory, and it was very unlikely that anything could escape from such a place. We also know that lab incidents are, of course, extremely rare."

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(With inputs from ANI)