|
 A WHO-led mission in China said this week that it was not looking
further into the question of whether the virus escaped from a lab,
which it considered highly unlikely. The United States has said it
will review the mission's findings.
"Some questions have been raised as to whether some hypotheses have
been discarded. Having spoken with some members of the team, I wish
to confirm that all hypotheses remain open and require further
analysis and study," Tedros said.
"Some of that work may lie outside the remit and scope of this
mission. We have always said that this mission would not find all
the answers, but it has added important information that takes us
closer to understanding the origins of the COVID-19 virus," he said.
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 The mission has said its main
hypotheses are that the virus originated in a
bat, although there are several possible
scenarios for how it passed to humans, possibly
first by infecting another species of animal.
The former administration of U.S. President
Donald Trump, which left office last month, said
it believed the virus may have escaped from a
lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan. China has
strongly denied this, and says the Wuhan
Institute of Virology was not studying related
viruses.
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