WHO to release long-awaited expert report on Covid-19 origin today

The report has been drafted by a team of international experts appointed by the WHO who visited China's Wuhan city earlier this year.

The long-awaited report on the origin of the coronavirus (Covid-19) will be released on Tuesday by the World Health Organization (WHO). Speaking at a news conference on Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed receiving the full mission report over the weekend. "All hypotheses are on the table and warrant complete and further studies," he said during the briefing.

The report is being closely watched by scientists around the world as the findings can help them prevent future pandemics. (AFP)

The report has been drafted by a team of international experts appointed by the WHO who visited China's Wuhan city earlier this year. The seafood market in Wuhan was the Covid-19 cluster of human cases in December 2019. Since then, the infection has now spread to almost all the countries killing more than 2.7 million people.

According to the preliminary information on the study, the researchers have found that Covid-19 most likely transmitted to humans via animals. However, the report offers no conclusive answers to the origin questions.

The report is being closely watched by scientists around the world as the findings can help them prevent future pandemics.

What are the findings?

The researchers have listed four possible scenarios through which Covid-19 could have transmitted to humans, various news agencies reported. The reasons are mentioned in order of likelihood and a possibility of Covid-19 transmission from bats through another animal tops the list.

Direct spread from bats to humans is listed as likely in the report, while the possibility of Covid-19 spreading through the packaging of “cold-chain” food products is "unlikely".

The report listed a possibility of the virus' leakage from the laboratory under the "extremely unlikely" category.

The team has proposed further research in every area except the lab leak hypothesis. It also said the role played by a seafood market where human cases were first identified was uncertain.

Doubts remain

The expert report has a troubled past. From delay in publication to China's resistance to giving access to diplomats, all of these hurdles have raised questions about whether the Chinese side was trying to skew its conclusions.

Emphasizing more information is required to ascertain the origin of Covid-19, Matthew Kavanagh of Georgetown University said, "It is clear that that the Chinese government has not provided all the data needed and, until they do, firmer conclusions will be difficult," news agency AP reported.

United States' Secretary of States, Anthony Blinken also raised concerns regarding the methodology and the process of the investigation. "We’ve got real concerns about the methodology and the process that went into that report, including the fact that the government in Beijing apparently helped to write it," Blinken was quoted as saying by CNN.

The top expert of infectious diseases, Anthony Fauci said he would like to read the report first then decide about its credibility. "I want to read the report first and then get a feel for what they really had access to - or did not have access to," AP quoted Fauci as saying.

"I’d also would like to inquire as to the extent in which the people who were on that group had access directly to the data that they would need to make a determination,” he also said as per an AP report.

(With agency inputs)