A team of scientists on a mission for the World Health Organization (WHO) to probe the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic will reportedly discuss four theories in their report, with one clear front-runner, but will make no conclusive decision on the virus’s origin.
The Associated Press reported Thursday that an upcoming report from the WHO team will highlight a theory that suggests the virus emerged after a bat being sold at the market came into close proximity with another animal, before a virus carried by the bat was transmitted to a human.
Another theory being investigated removes the intermediary animal and suggests that a human was infected directly by a virus from a bat that did not interact with other animals at the market in Wuhan, China.
Two other theories highlighted by the report are a theory that the virus originated in contaminated frozen food products sold at the market and a final theory, promoted by many U.S. conservatives as well as members of the Trump administration, that the virus was created in a Wuhan laboratory before being accidentally leaked to the public. This theory, after being examined by the researchers, is low down on the list of likely theories, according to the AP.
“At this point, there are no facts suggesting that there was a leak” from a lab, team member and Russian epidemiologist Vladimir Dedkov told the AP. “If suddenly scientific facts appear from somewhere, then accordingly, the priority of the version will change. But, at this particular moment, no.”
The reports are also likely set to throw cold water on conspiracy theories shared throughout Chinese media about nefarious U.S. intervention surrounding the virus; theories have circulated for months in Chinese media accusing the United States’ Fort Detrick of being involved in malign activity while also questioning the safety of the U.S.-manufactured Pfizer vaccine.
“If America respects the truth, then please open up Ft. Detrick and make public more information about the 200 or more bio-labs outside of the U.S., and please allow the WHO expert group to go to the U.S. to investigate the origins,” said a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry in January.
Future studies will likely be required to continue the work of identifying the origin of COVID-19, while even the latest efforts have been sharply criticized by those who have argued the WHO is allowing China to dictate what access researchers have to areas where the virus is thought to have first spread in late 2019.
“The last understanding we had was that it is expected to come out this week — we’ll have to see if that actually happens,” the U.S. charge d’affaires in Geneva, Mark Cassayre, told the AP. “We have a clear understanding that other studies will be required.”