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According to the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the U.N. health agency based in Geneva asked China "to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic," the Associated Press reported.
Tedros said there was a "premature push" to rule out the theory that the coronavirus originated in a government lab located in Wuhan—where the first cases were recorded. The theory was first dismissed by WHO in a March report that deemed it "extremely unlikely."
"I was a lab technician myself," Tedros said. "I'm an immunologist, and I have worked in the lab, and lab accidents happen. It's common."
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
In recent months, the idea that the pandemic started somehow in a laboratory—and perhaps involved an engineered virus—has gained traction, especially with President Joe Biden ordering a review of U.S. intelligence to assess the possibility in May.
China has struck back aggressively, arguing that attempts to link the origins of COVID-19 to a lab were politically motivated and suggesting the virus might have started abroad. At WHO's annual meeting of health ministers in the spring, China said the future search for COVID-19's origins should continue—in other countries.
Most scientists suspect the coronavirus originated in bats, but the exact route by which it first jumped into people—via an intermediary animal or in some other way—has not yet been determined. It typically takes decades to narrow down the natural source of an animal virus like Ebola or SARS.
Tedros said that "checking what happened, especially in our labs, is important" to nailing down if the pandemic had any laboratory links.
"We need information, direct information on what the situation of this lab was before and at the start of the pandemic," the WHO chief said, adding that China's cooperation was critical. "If we get full information, we can exclude (the lab connection)."
Throughout the pandemic, Tedros has repeatedly praised China for its speed and transparency despite senior WHO officials internally griping about obfuscation from their Chinese counterparts.
Last year, the Associated Press found that WHO was frustrated by a lack of details from China during the early stages of the coronavirus' spread and showed China was clamping down on the hidden hunt for the pandemic's origins.
Numerous public health experts have also called for an independent examination of COVID-19's origins, arguing WHO does not have the political clout to conduct such a forensic analysis and the U.N. agency has failed after more than a year to extract critical details from China.
Any WHO-led mission to China also requires government approval for all experts who travel to the country, as well as permission to visit field sites and final approval on any trip report. WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan has previously said the agency works by consensus and cannot compel countries to cooperate.
Tedros' appeal for transparency was echoed by German Health Minister Jens Spahn, who urged Chinese officials to allow the investigation into the origins of the virus to proceed.
"We do appreciate the cooperation of the Chinese government so far for the first mission," Spahn said. "But that's not yet enough."
