A leading virologist involved in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic has lamented the dismissal of the laboratory leak theory in favor of the frozen food origin hypothesis promoted by China.
Professor Marion Koopmans, head of the Department of Virus Science at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and a member of the WHO investigation team, emphasized that the possibility of a laboratory leak should never be ignored.
Speaking on the BBC Podcast”Fever: Searching for the origin of the new coronavirus“It’s not wise to rank in retrospect,” Koopmans said. We shouldn’t be doing that. “
In 2021, after a team of scientists visited Wuhan, the World Health Organization announced that “all hypotheses are on the table” and that the source of the virus has not yet been identified, daily mail report.
WHO’s preliminary ranking designated the theory of natural origin as the most likely explanation, labeled the laboratory leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology as “highly unlikely,” and supported the theory of frozen food origins. However, Koopmans stressed that the frozen food theory and the laboratory leak theory should not be ruled out.
China has put forward alternative theories, including that the virus originated at a research facility in Maryland, U.S., or was introduced through imported frozen food packaging.
A classified U.S. intelligence report to President Biden in 2021 also failed to reach a conclusion on the origin of the virus.
Despite the developments, Koopmans defended the inclusion of the frozen food theory in the final report, claiming it was based on scientific considerations rather than political pressure. “As a scientist, looking at the literature and where possible, I don’t think we should throw it away because it’s politically driven,” she said.
Koopmans’ statement comes as official documents emerge linking the U.S. government to controversial coronavirus research conducted by the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the outbreak of the 2020 pandemic.
A Wuhan researcher named Hu Ben received U.S. funding to conduct “gain-of-function” studies aimed at enhancing the virus’s infectivity, the documents show.
Hu was one of three researchers who were said to be the first to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. The other two were identified as Ping Yu and Yan Zhu.
Published by Medicaldaily.com