This archive report was first published on 5 May 2020.
WHO Denies US Claims of Wuhan Lab Origin of COVID-19 ¶
On May 4, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that it had not received any evidence from the United States government to support claims that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a Wuhan laboratory.
US President Donald Trump had previously claimed to have proof that the pandemic started in a Wuhan laboratory, but the WHO said that these claims were speculative and lacked evidence.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said, 'We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin of the virus — so from our perspective, this remains speculative.'
Top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci also echoed the WHO's statement, saying that the scientific evidence strongly suggested that the virus had evolved naturally in animals and then jumped to humans.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had previously stated that there was 'enormous evidence' to support the claim that the pandemic originated in a Wuhan laboratory, but the US intelligence community had said that it would continue to study the origin of the pandemic.
China has vehemently denied suggestions that the lab was the source of the pandemic.
WHO expert Maria Van Kerkhove stressed that there were 15,000 full genome sequences of the novel coronavirus available, and 'from all of the evidence that we have seen… this virus is of natural origin.'
The WHO has repeatedly said that the virus clearly appears to have originated naturally from an animal source, and has offered to assist in Chinese investigations into the animal origins of the pandemic.
