An international expert mission to Wuhan has concluded it was very likely that Covid-19 first passed to humans from a bat through an intermediary …
An international expert mission to Wuhan has concluded it was very likely that Covid-19 first passed to humans from a bat through an intermediary animal, while all but ruling out a laboratory leak. The intermediate host hypothesis was deemed « likely to very likely », while the theory that the virus escaped from a lab was seen as « extremely unlikely », according to the long-awaited report, which AFP obtained a copy of on Monday, before the official release. The report from the international mission to Wuhan has been keenly anticipated ever since the expert team left China more than a month ago. Delays in the publication of the findings, drafted in collaboration with the team’s Chinese counterparts, had been blamed on coordination and translation issues, even as a diplomatic tug-of-war raged in the background over the report’s contents.
