EU joins call for new probe into Covid’s origins

The EU has thrown its weight behind a new probe into the origins of Covid after a WHO investigation earlier this year was slammed as a China-centric whitewash. 

Council President Charles Michel said today that ‘the world has the right to know exactly what happened’ at the start of the pandemic, ahead of the G7 summit in Britain where the issue is expected to be on the agenda.

Ursula von der Leyen added that investigators should be given ‘complete access’ to whatever sites they need to examine to draw a conclusion – alluding to a Wuhan lab that has come under fresh suspicion as a potential ‘ground zero’ for the virus.

Last month, Joe Biden ordered US intelligence agencies to conduct a fresh probe of Covid’s origins – admitting they are ‘split’ on whether the virus leaked from the lab.  

The so-called lab leak theory has long been the subject of informed speculation among intelligence services and scientists, but was dismissed as little more than a conspiracy theory after it was touted by then-President Trump last year.

A WHO report into Covid’s origins published earlier this year also dismissed the theory, saying it was ‘extremely unlikely’ and should not be investigated further.

Instead, researchers said the virus likely originated in a bat before transferring to an intermediary host and then into humans – while also giving credence to other theories emanating from Beijing, such as it being imported on frozen meat.

Their report was widely dismissed as a whitewash, including by the US – with diplomats telling the UN last month that the study was ‘insufficient and inconclusive’.

Even WHO director Tedros Ghebreyesus – who has been accused of cosying up to China – objected, saying the lab leak theory remained on the table and that all possible origins of Covid should continue to be investigated.

Mr Michel and Ms Von der Leyen were also speaking ahead of a joint EU-US summit next week, when a joint statement is expected to be issued calling for a Covid probe.

A daft text of that statement says: ‘We call for progress on a transparent, evidence-based and expert-led WHO-convened phase 2 study on the origins of COVID-19, that is free from interference.’ 

The Covid pandemic has so-far infected at least 175million people in virtually every country in the world and killed 3.7million, though both numbers are thought to be large under-estimates. 

The first cases of the virus were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, in what was then reported as ‘pneumonia of unknown origin’.

In January the infections were attributed to a novel virus which was eventually named by the WHO as SARS-CoV-2.

Many of the original cases were linked to a wet market in the city which sold a mixture of farmed and wild animals, leading to the theory that the disease originated in an animal host before crossing into humans.

But few now believe the wet market was the original source of the virus, and think the virus may have found its way there from another source before spreading.

The true source of the virus remains a mystery, with ‘patient zero’ – the first person to have caught the disease – yet to be identified.

That has led to competing theories about where, when and how the virus first crossed into humans – though researchers all agree that answering these questions are vital to understanding Covid, and preventing future pandemics.

Many researchers and a portion of the US intelligence community still back the ‘zoonotic spillover’ hypothesis which suggests the virus originated in animals before crossing into humans during contact between the two species.

Proponents of this theory say the virus likely originated in bats, because other similar viruses have been found in the animals before.

The virus is then said to have jumped directly from bats into humans – or, because contact between bats and humans is rare, it may have infected a secondary host that is more commonly found around people before making the jump.

Covid is known to infect a number of other animals including domestic pets such as dogs and cats, though it is not known to jump from there into humans.

Some farmed animals, such as mink, have been known to harbour the disease and then pass it back to people. 

But others suggest the true source of the virus was the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese lab located near Wuhan that also happens to be the world’s largest centre of research on coronaviruses.

They believe the virus was either uncovered at the lab – which collects coronaviruses from wild animals – or else engineered through ‘gain of function’ research.

Such research involves adding properties such as increased transmissibility  to already-existing viruses to study the effects and develop treatments before such diseases crop up in the wild.

But the research is hugely controversial, with many scientists arguing the risks of creating such viruses far outweigh the potential benefits.   

According to proponents of this theory, the virus then leaked from the lab -possibly by infecting staff who then unwittingly passed it to the general population.

One intelligence report passed to agencies in Washington claims three members of staff at the laboratory sought hospital treatment in November 2019 – a month before the first official cases of Covid were detected, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Their symptoms were ‘consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness’, the report says, calling for further investigation.

That tallies with a body of evidence suggesting Covid may have been circulating for months before China first reported it to the world – either as a result of the often-mild disease going undetected, or the result of a cover-up.

Scientists in Italy claim to have detected evidence of Covid in blood samples taken as far back as September 2019, while researchers in Spain say the disease could have been present there in January 2020 – months before the first official case.

Even the authors of the much-derided WHO report admitted they could not rule out the possibility that Covid was circulating before December 2019.

China has vehemently denied any suggestion that Covid leaked from the lab and has accused the US of ‘playing politics’ by reigniting suspicion in the theory.

Instead, Beijing has made a number of incendiary and unsubstantiated allegations that Covid actually originated outside of the country and was imported.

So-far, researchers and diplomats have pointed the finger of blame at nine countries including the US, Australia and India – all rivals of Beijing.