Mr Tedros also insisted that there should be continued examination of the theory that the virus had escaped from a Wuhan institute of virology laboratory, even though the report deemed it “extremely unlikely” as a source of the pandemic. “In my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data,” Mr Tedros said after the report of a team that travelled to Wuhan was released. Early circulation“In terms of key data we looked into data coming out of different surveillance systems looking at cases of fever and unspecified pneumonia – and respiratory syndromes,” he told a press conference in Geneva. Echoing Mr Tedros’s remarks, Mr Ben Embarek said there were areas where his team had difficulty getting down to the raw data in China, adding that data would need to be re-examined in the next phase of the probe. Despite studying data of samples from large numbers of farmed wild animals, the researchers were unable to find evidence of Covid-19.

Source: The Irish Times March 30, 2021 18:09 UTC