A patient taken to hospital in Mexico City on February 2, 2021. – Marco Ugarte / AP / SIPA
The WHO released its findings on Monday. The joint study by experts from the World Health Body and Chinese scientists concluded that transmission to humans from an intermediate animal is a “likely to very likely” hypothesis, while a laboratory incident remains. “Extremely unlikely”.
According to the final version of the report, the specialists, who some say did not have enough leeway to work freely during their four-week stay in China, ruled that “given the literature on the role of animals in breeding as intermediate hosts for emerging diseases, it is necessary to carry out further surveys including a greater geographical extent ”.