WHO Chief Tedros Ghebreyesus: Was 'Premature' To Rule Out Coronavirus Lab Leak From China Theory

The head of the World Health Organisation acknowledged it was premature to rule out a potential link between the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory leak. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on July 15 that he is asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus. In a rare departure from his usual deference to powerful member countries, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said getting access to raw data had been a challenge for the international team that traveled to China earlier this year to investigate the source of Covid-19. The first human cases were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Tedros told reporters that the UN health agency based in Geneva is “asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic.” He said there had been a “premature push” to rule out the theory that the virus might have escaped from a Chinese government lab in Wuhan, undermining WHO’s own March report, which concluded that a laboratory leak was “extremely unlikely”. China has struck back aggressively, arguing that attempts to link the origins of Covid19 to a lab were politically motivated and suggesting that the virus might have started abroad. Watch the video to know more.