China rejects WHO investigation

In a news conference on Thursday, the vice minister of China’s National Health Commission criticized the World Health Organization for politicizing its efforts to trace the origin of the coronavirus. WHO investigators visited the country in January and released an initial report in March saying the virus that causes COVID-19 likely did not leak from a lab. World leaders have questioned the credibility of the origins report due to the lack of raw data and access to Chinese facilities. The WHO wants to send investigators back to China to audit labs in and near the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started. But China does not support the inquiry.

How likely was a lab leak? The director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s biosafety lab said Thursday that its researchers never designed, stored, or studied the virus. In May, The Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed U.S. intelligence officials who said three Wuhan lab researchers became sick with COVID-19-like symptoms in November 2019.

Dig deeper: Listen to Sarah Schweinsberg’s report on coronavirus origin theories on The World and Everything in It podcast.