is there any evidence to tell us what has caused the end of the world

Members of the World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus leave the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, People's republic of china, on Feb. three. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Members of the Globe Health Organisation team investigating the origins of the coronavirus leave the Wuhan Establish of Virology in Wuhan, Mainland china, on Feb. 3.

Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Before COVID-19, few scientists would accept pegged the urban center of Wuhan, in temperate key Cathay, as a probable starting point for a global coronavirus pandemic. Its climate and fauna don't fit the pecker.

Simply the urban center of eleven 1000000 straddling the Yangtze River is home to some of China's most avant-garde biological enquiry laboratories. And one of the secretive, state-run institutions, the Wuhan Plant of Virology, is known to conduct experiments on the kind of virus that has killed nearly 3 million people worldwide and so far since late 2019.

"I call back there were a lot of people who did put together the fact that you had an outbreak in Wuhan and you have these laboratories in Wuhan fairly immediately," said David Feith, who was an Asia adviser in the Trump administration's State Department when the coronavirus emerged.

"The question was: What does the prove tell us?" said Feith, who is currently at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

At the time, not much.

One-time President Donald Trump and some in his administration latched onto the theory. But scientists focused on stopping the pandemic, and Red china dragged its feet on an international investigation.

Now, though, the lab leak hypothesis seems to take found new life.

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization released a joint report with Beijing on the origins of the pandemic post-obit a 4-calendar week investigation in China. It ended, among other things, that the lab leak hypothesis was "extremely unlikely."

But WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he does not believe the squad's assessment of the lab leak possibility was extensive enough.

"Although the team has ended that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with boosted missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy," he told WHO members, according to a written argument.

Jamie Metzl, a senior young man at the Atlantic Council, has been an outspoken proponent of such an investigation.

"I'thou not maxim that I am sure that COVID-19 stems from an accidental lab leak, but it would be absolutely irresponsible and could only be politically motivated to say that it'southward not even worth having a full investigation," he said.

A State Department fact sheet from mid-January highlights reports of ill lab researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the fall of 2019, notes the unsafe type of coronavirus research the lab was conducting and said there was besides hugger-mugger military activity at the lab.

China has refuted the claims. Critics of the WHO study, such equally Metzl, said the skilful team that visited the lab took their Chinese interlocutors at their word and didn't dig. Metzl said that'due south bereft.

"If in the eye of the worst pandemic in a century, China wants to tell the residue of the world, 'Screw you, it'due south not even worth investigating,' that's on them. But nosotros shouldn't requite them a free pass," he said.

While Metzl and others, like Feith, believe there is more circumstantial evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, came from a lab than naturally, many scientists say the opposite. Based on the available evidence, they believe, like the WHO team, that the coronavirus appears far more likely to have emerged naturally.

Alina Chan, a postdoctoral scientist working on genetics at the Broad Institute in Boston, said this is a critical juncture.

"This fourth dimension it'southward China that's in the hot spot. ... But next time, maybe it's not China. So, if we decide that we cannot investigate, we only requite upward this time, then other countries might feel that there isn't an accountability mechanism in place," she said.

That could potentially pb to less stringent, and more dangerous, lab conditions, she said.

Politics at play

Meanwhile, non far beneath the surface of the debate are geopolitical tensions betwixt China and the United states — relations between the ii countries soured in the last year nether Trump and evidence no signs of improving under the Biden administration.

Trump sought to place maximum blame for COVID-19 on China — and pushed the lab leak theory — in what some of his critics saw as an effort to deflect criticism of his own handling of the pandemic.

But Scott Kennedy at the Middle for Strategic and International Studies said Red china's pes-dragging on an investigation, counter-accusations and secrecy haven't helped its example.

"The Due west prides itself on its openness and transparency relative to disciplinarian places similar China, so in the contest for soft power and legitimacy this is a useful topic to continue to push," he said.

For its role, the Biden administration joined xiii other governments to criticize the WHO report and call for more openness from Cathay on Tuesday. In a articulation statement, they did non mention the lab leak theory, only the Biden administration hasn't ruled it out.

"I think the administration has made it pretty articulate that given the lack of Chinese transparency, it is not comfortable eliminating the lab escape theory," said Elizabeth Economy, a senior beau at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

"The fact that WHO head Tedros, who has previously championed China'due south transparency, stated that more all-encompassing enquiry was needed before eliminating the possibility that the virus escaped from the lab signals that continued skepticism is merited," Economy said.

Affect on U.Southward.-Red china relations

Still, some worry that a hard-charging focus on hypothetical lab accidents might further bog down U.S.-China relations, which are at their rockiest in decades.

Deborah Seligsohn, an assistant professor at Pennsylvania'southward Villanova University, was in charge of science and health issues at the U.S. Diplomatic mission in Beijing during the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s. She said there's been a lot of cooperation betwixt China and the United states in the field of science and public wellness, including on this pandemic, and it's not all-time served past piling pressure level on Beijing.

"I recollect that leads to a lot of accusations and eventually someone decides to lengthened it past coming upwards with some sort of face-saving agreement, but I don't recall it actually leads to scientific discipline," she said.

And, for better or worse, pushing hard might brand it tougher to get answers about the origins of the pandemic — which will be difficult to do under any circumstances.

"I remember the genetics will tell yous nearly the virus. I remember it would be very hard to tell you where it got into the human population and how it spread and whether it came from a lab or it didn't come from the lab. I think that's going to be very difficult," said Barry Blossom, an immunologist and infectious disease skilful at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

"And no matter how good the rational explanations of another WHO commission, there's a subset of people in both countries that will non believe the virtually probable answers."

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/983156340/theory-that-covid-came-from-a-chinese-lab-takes-on-new-life-in-wake-of-who-repor

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