Geopolitical tensions are frustrating efforts to find out how COVID-19 originated.
Why does it matter: Perceptions about how COVID-19 started can help us prevent future pandemics – especially if they involve any type of leak or accident in a virology laboratory.
Driving the news: The findings of a WHO-led mission in Wuhan, China, earlier this year to investigate the origins of COVID-19 are expected by mid-March, health agency officials said at a news conference on Friday, after plans for an interim report have apparently been scrapped.
Context: The WHO team received international criticism when its members concluded at a press conference at the end of their trip that a laboratory accident was “extremely unlikely”, although it remained open to the possibility – promoted by Beijing – that the virus originated in another place and was introduced in China by means of contaminated frozen food.
Be smart: The most likely explanation is still the simplest: coronavirus has moved from an animal host in China to humans, the type of zoonotic overflow seen in countless other emerging outbreaks.
- But a pandemic threat from laboratory leaks is real, and as our ability to manipulate viruses increases, so does the danger.
- Although we are limited in our ability to prevent zoonotic overflows, we can and must do much more to monitor and regulate the type of research that can lead to the accidental introduction of a new virus.
The end result: Without much better transparency, we will probably never know for sure how COVID-19 started – and what steps we need to take to prevent this from happening again.