U.S. to scrutinize WHO report that rules out COVID-19 came from Chinese lab

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration is trying ahead to scrutinizing information included in a World Well being Group report launched on Tuesday that mentioned the COVID-19 virus didn’t originate in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, White Home press secretary Jen Psaki mentioned.

The pinnacle of a WHO-led workforce probing the origins of COVID-19 mentioned bats stay a probable supply and that transmission of the virus through frozen meals is a chance that warrants additional investigation. He dominated out a lab leak.

Psaki advised reporters at a press briefing on Tuesday that the administration was not concerned within the “planning and implementation” of the investigation and needs to take an impartial evaluation of its findings and underlying information.

She added that regardless that the administration rejoined the WHO, it’s “crucial that we’ve got our personal workforce of specialists on the bottom” in China.

Peter Ben Embarek, who led the workforce of impartial specialists in its almost month-long go to to Wuhan, the place the outbreak first emerged at a seafood market in late 2019, mentioned the workforce’s work had uncovered new data however had not dramatically modified their image of the outbreak.

The chance the virus leaked from a lab – which has been the topic of conspiracy theories – was extraordinarily unlikely and didn’t require additional research, Embarek mentioned.

Requested in regards to the WHO findings throughout a every day information briefing, State Division spokesman Ned Worth mentioned he couldn’t conclusively say that WHO specialists had acquired full cooperation from China.

“Properly, I feel the jury’s nonetheless out. I feel clearly the Chinese language, not less than heretofore, haven’t provided the requisite transparency that we want,” Worth mentioned, including that the US would make its determinations based mostly on the WHO information and its personal intelligence.