- An interim report summarizing WHO’s investigation into the origins of the virus has been ruled out.
- WHO says that this summary will be published with the full report “in the coming weeks”.
- This occurs at a time when the independence of the investigation of Chinese influence is under scrutiny.
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An interim report summarizing a World Health Organization investigation into the origins of coronavirus has been ruled out, The Wall Street Journal published on Thursday.
WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on February 12 that a summary of the results would come within weeks, the Journal said.
But that plan has been discarded, the research team’s chief scientist, Peter Ben Embarek, told the Journal.
The results of the joint WHO-China study are not yet public, the WHO confirmed in an email to Insider on Friday.
Instead, “the team plans to publish the full report at the same time as the summary, so that all information is available to the public,” said spokesman Tarik Jašarević.
The news comes at a time when the independence of the team conducting the investigation is questioned.
In a letter published on Thursday, 26 scientists not affiliated with the WHO team said that “structural limitations” in the way the team operated made a complete examination of the origins of the pandemic “almost impossible”.
The scientists said that half of the team is made up of “Chinese citizens whose scientific independence may be limited”.
The investigation has to be based on “information that the Chinese authorities have decided to share with them,” the scientists said in the letter.
The WHO team arrived in Wuhan in January to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. More than a year passed after the outbreak began.
After a month-long investigation, the team presented their first findings to journalists, saying they had ruled out a laboratory source for the virus.
After the press conference, one of the team’s scientists said that China had refused to release the raw data to the WHO team, making it more difficult to assess the quality of the information.
In response to that report, the White House said on February 13 that it was “deeply concerned” about how the first findings were communicated and asked China to release the data since the first days of the outbreak.
“It is imperative that this report is independent, with conclusions from experts free from intervention or change by the Chinese government,” said the statement.
WHO told Insider by email that the full report is “expected in the coming weeks”.