WHO: lack of data from China affects pandemic's origins

The World Health Organization has said that its latest investigation into the origins of COVID-19 was inconclusive, largely because data from China is missing. It is yet another setback in the organization's years-long effort to figure out how the pandemic started.  All available data indicated that the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 came from animals, most likely bats, according to the WHO expert panel's report, which was similar to the UN agency's previous work on the topic in 2021 after a trip to China. The findings are likely to raise doubts about the virus's ability to be traced back to its source. It includes a footnote outlining how members of the panel from Brazil, China, and Russia disagreed that more research on the lab hypothesis was needed and suggested that nothing had changed since the previous WHO-China joint report on origins, published in March 2021, reflecting the political wrangling that has dogged the report's drafting.

BREAKING: The World Health Organization says its latest investigation into the origins of COVID-19 was inconclusive — largely because data from China is missing, another blow to its years-long effort to determine how the pandemic began.https://t.co/mAfJyIVPgE

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) June 9, 2022

According to the report, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote to the Chinese government twice in February seeking more information. China had also provided some data upon request, according to the authors. The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center claims the origins of the pandemic, which has killed at least 6 million people, have become politicized. Scientists say it's critical to figure out what happened in order to prevent future outbreaks.