WHO urges nations to share COVID-19 origins information as US, China spar over lab leak theory

• "WHO has not abandoned any plans to identify the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic," Tedros stressed
• "WHO continues to call for China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results," said Tedros
• The first infections were recorded in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday called on all countries to reveal what they know about the origin of COVID-19, following US claims of a leak from a Chinese lab and furious denials from Beijing. The development comes days after FBI Director Christopher Wray told the news channel that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has now assessed the source of the COVID-19 pandemic to be "most likely a potential laboratory incident in Wuhan".

But Chinese officials angrily denied the claim, calling it a smear campaign against Beijing."If a country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it is essential that this information is shared with WHO and the international scientific community," insisted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Not to assign blame, but to enhance our understanding of how this pandemic started so that we can prevent, prepare for and respond to future epidemics and pandemics," he told in a news conference. "WHO has not abandoned any plans to identify the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic," he emphasized.

In 2021, the United Nations health agency established a so-called Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of New Pathogens, which identified key studies needed in China and elsewhere to test hypotheses about the origins of the pandemic. "WHO continues to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results," Tedros said, adding that he had written and spoken to top Chinese officials on numerous occasions. "Until then, all hypotheses about the origin of the virus remain on the table," he said. But he added that the continued politicization of ancestry research is turning a purely scientific process into a geopolitical football, making the task more difficult — and thus making the world less safe.

The first infections were recorded in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Wray's comments come after a report earlier this week said the US Department of Energy had determined that a leak from a Chinese lab was the most likely cause of the COVID-19 outbreak. The department works with a network of national laboratories, including some that conduct advanced biological research. Other agencies within the US intelligence community believe the virus emerged naturally.