A Chinese government health official recently denied that the Wuhan Institute of Virology or WIV workers were not infected with COVID-19 shortly before the virus first occurred.
According to a Newsweek report, the deputy head of China's National Health Commission, Zeng Yixin, commented at yesterday's press conference.
The health expert announced that China would not be taking part in the next stage of investigation on the origin of COVID-19 of the World Health Organization, which underscores the probability that the virus could have come from a Chinese laboratory.
Zeng said the plan disregarded common sense and defying science, adding that no researcher or worker at the WIV got infected by COVID-19.
Disclosed by the Wall Street Journal in May, it comes after the United States intelligence report claimed three researchers at the WIV turned ill in November 2019 and ended up seeking care at the hospital.
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A security personnel stands guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on February 3, 2021.
The WHO Investigation
COVID-19 infection's origin remains unclear and has been a topic of international tension since the onset of the pandemic. According to a similar report from The Daily Triumph, the WHO launched an investigation into the matter and published a report early this year.
The organization found the most possible scenario was that COVID-19 was introduced to humans through an intermediary animal host and that the unintended lab leak theory was tremendously improbable.
As specified in the report, while lab accidents certainly happen, the three Wuhan labs working with their diagnostics and, or, isolation of coronaviruses, and development of vaccines, all had high-quality biosafety level facilities that were managed well.
Lack of Data Access
According to a joint statement following the publication of the report, the WHO data nevertheless faced instantaneous criticism from various governments worldwide, including the US, who expressed concerns that the study had been substantially delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and specimens.
In May, US President Joe Biden said, he had tasked the Intelligence Community with generating its own report on the origins of COVID-19. He said he was expecting the report back within 90 days.
A week ago, CNN reported an unidentified source as saying that various top officials of the Biden administration including Jake Sullivan, National Security Adviser are now viewing the accidental lab leak theory as equally plausible to the natural origins theory.
Yesterday, Zeng dismissed the current plans for a follow-up investigation. In a Reuters report, the deputy head also said they are hoping the WHO would seriously review both the suggestions and considerations the Chinese experts made, truly treat the COVID-19 virus's original tracing as a scientific matter, and avoid political meddling.
Earlier Reports of Lab Leaks
Earlier this month, it was reported that scientists claimed that the presence of a particular genetic sequence called CGG-CGG is a sign that the virus indeed originated in a laboratory.
A SciTechDaily report said the theory that COVID-19 was stirred by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, being leaked from the WIV, was recently given new life following publication of a controversial article in the Wall Street Journal in which the writers said a fascinating reason to favor the lab leak theory is intensely science-based.
Understanding the origin of the viral outbreak can provide scientists with essential information about viral lineages and enable steps to be put in place to preempt the same or similar future outbreaks.
As such, this early report specified, the virus's origin has been contended from the onset of this pandemic and has stayed an active topic of arguments among researchers and medical experts.
A related report on the lab leak theory is shown on BBC News's YouTube video below:
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