WHO expert says coronavirus probably didn't leak from China lab

(Image credit: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

published 9 February 2021

A World Health Organization expert said Tuesday that the coronavirus probably didn't leak from a Chinese lab, and most likely spread to humans from some other species, The Associated Press reports. WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek made the statement in a summary of a WHO team's investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.

A WHO team visited the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first COVID-19 cases were reported in December 2019, after months of resistance from the Chinese government. China has denied the virus could have leaked from a lab, and suggested, without evidence, that it might have originated elsewhere and reached Wuhan, possibly in imported frozen food packaging. China still won't agree to a fully independent investigation.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.