COVID BOMBSHELL
WHO chief orders new probe into Wuhan lab leak theory as he rubbishes his own team’s whitewash Covid report
WORLD Health Organisation chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has demanded a new probe into allegations that Covid may have come from a lab leak in Wuhan.
His astonishing intervention came almost simultaneously as the WHO-China joint investigation team released a long awaited and much derided report which ruled out the possibility as "extremely unlikely".
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WHO investigators had been blasted over the 123-page document which was branded an "insult to billions" as the United Nations body was accused of bending over backwards to appease China.
But then just as mission leader Dr Peter Ben Embarek was talking to journalists on a Zoom press call about the controversial report, Dr Tedros seemed to undermine the team's work in a separate briefing to WHO member states.
He called for investigations into the pandemic's origins to delve deeper into the theory about a possible lab incident, which they had all but ruled out in the report released just minutes before on Tuesday.
"Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy," Dr Tedros said.
He added: "I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough. Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions."
The WHO chief also voiced concern that the international team had difficulty accessing raw data during the mission - with China feared to have concealed much information about the early days of Covid.
He added: "I expect future collaborative studies to include more timely and comprehensive data sharing."
The team of experts from WHO spent a week in the Communist Party state where Covid originated as they were given a carefully stage-managed look at data and evidence accrued by China.
Tom Tugendhat MP, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told The Sun Online: “China’s cover up continues. Even though we need to know where the virus started, Beijing is still blocking scientists to hide the mistakes that unmask their failures.”
He added: "Dictatorships hide the truth by default because they are frightened of their own people - so they must not show weakness, and that is exactly what we are seeing here."
This joint report isn’t just inadequate, it’s an insult to the billions of people around the world who have suffered from the pandemic.
Jamie Metzl
China has long been accused of attempting to cover up or distort its role in the story of Covid, and even US President Joe Biden's administration has raised questions over the authenticity of the probe.
The new report concluded that the virus - which has killed 2.8million people - "likely" crossed from animals to mankind through an as of yet unknown creature.
And the paper agreed with the Chinese explanation that its "possible" it could have arrived in Wuhan on frozen food - suggesting the virus may have even originated outside of China.
The only one of the four prongs of the WHO investigation which was seemingly dismissed was the possibility of a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).
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WIV is known to have been studying coronviruses, was conducting gain of function research designed to increase their infectiousness, and is located just stone's throw from where the virus emerged.
However, the joint WHO-Chinese probe found that the lab leak was "extremely unlikely", and said they found the labs in Wuhan were "well managed" and had "high quality" facilities.
Yet this assessment has now been turned on its head after the fresh intervention from Dr Tedros as world leaders - including Britain - pushed for a treaty to prepare for future pandemics.
Tobias Ellwood MP, chair of the Defence Select Committee, told The Sun Online: "Is it right - were this to happen again - that any state can deny the rest of world access for an entire year to discover the cause of the pandemic knowing the scale of death and damage to our economies?
"China has a lot to answer. We know what immense pressure Dr Tedros is under given how China has retaliated to calls for an investigation, but he clearly is not satisfied.
"But how do we move forward? It illustrates the problem we have with an ever confident and bullish China."
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Jamie Metzl, a WHO advisor and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, who helped organise an open letter signed by 26 scientists calling for a new independent investigation, blasted the probe.
He told The Sun Online: "This joint report isn’t just inadequate, it’s an insult to the billions of people around the world who have suffered from the pandemic.
"By bending over backwards to validate the zoonotic jump hypothesis despite the clear absence of evidence and glibly discounting the lab leak hypothesis without meaningful consideration, the report shows why having the Beijing government co-investigate a possible lab leak and deadly cover up is like asking the Kremlin to co-investigate Chernobyl.
"The world desperately needs a full and unrestricted international investigation into the origins of the pandemic. Tragically, this is not it.”
“China’s cover up continues. Even though we need to know where the virus started, Beijing is still blocking scientist to hide the mistakes that unmask their failures.”
What do we know about the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
THE WUHAN Institute of Virology is the highest security lab of its kind in all of China - and can be found right at the heart of the origins of the global pandemic.
Various theories have been swirling about the lab, which is headed up by Chinese scientist Dr Shi Zhengli, known as “Bat Woman”.
Most scientists do not believe the virus leaked from the lab, and the lab itself has categorically denied the claims.
The lab specialised in bat-borne viruses and had been carrying out experiences on them since 2015.
Airlocks, full body suits, and chemical showers are required before entering and leaving the lab - the first in China to be accredited with biosafety level 4 (BSL-4).
BSL-4 labs are the only places in the world where scientists can study diseases that have no cure.
Scientists from the lab even tested mysterious
virus which killed three miners 1,000 miles away in Yunnan province back in 2012.
It has been suggested this fatal mystery bug may have been the true origin of Covid-19.
Experts at the lab also engineered a new type of hybrid 'super-virus' that can infect humans in 2015, according to medical journal
Despite fears surrounding the research, the study was designed to show the risk of viruses carried by bats which could be transmitted to humans.
There is no suggestion the facility's 2015 work is linked to the pandemic.
The lab was also recruiting new scientists to probe coronaviruses in bats just seven days before the outbreak.
China has began tightening security around its biolabs with President Xi Jinping saying it was a “national security” issue to improve scientific safety at a meeting last February.
Dr Ben Embarek was quizzed about Dr Tedros' comments at the press conference and defended his team's work - saying they did not see strong indications they should look into the lab leak, but confessed they have not done a full investigation.
He admitted Wuhan lab scientists revealed they feared the virus may have escaped due to their experiments, but added there was "no evidence" that implicates any of the the labs.
However, the mission chief said they would continue to keep the possibility open - despite all but ruling it out in their report - and described it as a "dynamic process".
It is "perfectly possible" COVID-19 cases were circulating in November or October 2019 around Wuhan, China, the team's leader, Dr Ben Embarek, added, potentially leading to the disease spreading abroad earlier than documented
The WHO report admits that "although rare, laboratory accidents do occur" and states that the closest known virus to SARS-CoV-2 was found being held at WIV in bat anal swabs.
It also revealed the Wuhan CDC, another lab, moved locations on December 2 to a new location near the Huanan Seafood Market - where the virus was first discovered just weeks later.
The paper acknowledges that such a move may have been "disruptive" - but then goes on to rule out the lab leak.
It states: "In view of the above, a laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely."
US intelligence officials have insisted for the past year that they have compelling evidence that the virus may have escaped from WIV.
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Taking to Twitter before the release of the report, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: "The WHO report is a sham continuation of the CCP-WHO disinformation campaign.
"It’s why I recommended we leave WHO. Dr. Tedros collaborated with Xi to hide human to human transmission at a CRITICAL juncture.
"WIV remains the most likely source of the virus — and WHO is complicit."
And relations between the US and China remain strained as President Joe Biden’s administration also refused to accept findings from WHO over Covid's origins.
China and the lab have always furiously denied any allegations of a possible leak, and WHO appeared to agree with them as they wrapped up their probe in Wuhan.
However, the over the investigation which was carried out in a tightly managed fashion alongside China.
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Scientists who were on the team have already broken cover and revealed China and there was always “politics in the room”.
Documents already revealed Beijing downplayed the bug to “protect its image“, and there have been repeated allegations that China has manipulated its death and case figures.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Earlier this year, new docs released by the US revealed scientists in Wuhan fell ill with Covid-like symptoms in late 2019 – months before the pandemic began to ravage the world.
MPs have also been pressuring the British government to investigate after a top US official revealed the Trump White House considered a leak the "most credible" origin of the virus.
WHO chief says Wuhan lab leak theory ‘remains open’ & ‘needs further study’ after China whitewash probe
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