United States' House GOP report raises questions over Covid lab leak
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This latest statement contradicts their original assertion made after the publication of the first report on how the deadly Sars-Cov-2 outbreak began in China, sparking the beginning of a global pandemic that caused the large parts of the world to enter into lockdown. Since the start of the outbreak, there have been accusations that the virus emerged as a result of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Months after the outbreak began, WHO experts were sent to China to investigate the origins, after which it concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” that the coronavirus originated from a lab.
This 2021 report was slammed for not being thorough enough, with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, later acknowledging that there had been a “premature push” after the first phase of the study to rule out the Wuhan virology lab leak theory.
However, in their latest report, the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) added that “key pieces of data” have remained missing from China during their search how the origins of the pandemic.
The authors of the report wrote: “The SAGO notes that there has not been any new data made available to evaluate the laboratory as a pathway of SARS-CoV-2 into the human population and recommends further investigations into this and all other possible pathways.
“The SAGO will remain open to any and all scientific evidence that becomes available in the future to allow for comprehensive testing of all reasonable hypotheses.”
The authors noted that lab accidents have been the trigger for some outbreaks previously, so the theory could not be completely ruled out.
The report said: “Recognizing that historically this has unfortunately happened with other pathogens, it is important to include studies in the global framework that address these risks.
“A possible breach of biosafety or biosecurity measures may be caused by an accidental event or a procedural or engineering failure that results in the infection of staff working in a laboratory while handling animals or collecting specimens in a field setting.”
Matt Ridley, a former Tory Peer and author of Viral: The search for the origin of COVID-19, previously told Express.co.uk that there was a motive to “quash” the lab leak theory early in the investigations to save China’s reputation.
He said: “There was a motive among the people on this exchange to quash this theory because of the damage it might do to science in general and science in China.
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“That does seem to have been the reason why the scientists who thought a laboratory leak was plausible then sat down and wrote an article saying it wasn’t.
“That is frankly upsetting for those of us who are champions of science to find that scientists are putting political convenience above the truth.”
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