WHO Report Leaves Covid-19 Origin Unresolved, Presses China for Missing Data

The World Health Organization said its four-year investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2 has ended without a definitive answer, leaving all theories—including animal-to-human transmission and an accidental laboratory release—"on the table." Publishing a 78-page report on 27 June, the agency’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) concluded that most available evidence still points to a zoonotic spillover, but stressed that a lack of critical data prevents ruling out other possibilities.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that China has yet to provide hundreds of early viral genetic sequences, detailed records of animals sold at Wuhan markets, or biosafety documentation from local laboratories. SAGO members said those omissions meant the lab-leak hypothesis could neither be investigated thoroughly nor excluded. One panel member resigned and three others removed their names from the final document amid disagreements over the strength of the available evidence.

Tedros appealed to China and other governments to share any remaining intelligence or scientific data, calling clarification of the virus’s origin a "moral imperative" after an estimated 20 million deaths and trillions of dollars in economic losses. The WHO said it will reassess its findings if new, verifiable information emerges, but for now considers the question of how the Covid-19 pandemic began to be unresolved.