The Chinese Communist Party rejected a follow-up World Health Organization investigation into COVID-19’s origins, with government scientists condemning the plans for a second inquiry because it emphasizes the need to investigate further the possibility the virus emerged from a Wuhan lab.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, said the WHO-China report “identified areas for further study” and said the WHO’s secretariat had provided a circular letter to the U.N. agency’s member states laying out the so-called “phase two” investigation into how COVID-19 emerged. Tedros described five main areas for further study, with the final one being “audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions operating in the area of the initial human cases identified in December 2019.” Tedros said the day before that “there was a premature push to, you know, especially reduce one of the options, like the lab theory.”
