WHO panel: Animals Most Likely Origin of COVID but Missing Data Leaves Findings Inconclusive

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

27/06/2025

 

"A four year WHO-sponsored investigation of the origins of the COVID pandemic by an international group of experts has concluded that “most scientific data and accessible published scientific evidence” support the hypothesis that the novel SARS-CoV2 virus first entered the human population either directly from virus-carrying bats, or from bats to humans via intermediate hosts. 

 

But the possibility that the virus escaped from a lab leak remains on the table, the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) said in a press conference just ahead of the publication of its final report on Friday.

 

Large gaps in data provided by China, as well as a lack of access to key United States and German intelligence reports, have confounded investigation of the lab leak hypothesis, the 27-member report of international experts concluded."

 

(more)

 

https://healthpolicy-watch.news/breaking-animal-source-most-likely-origin-of-sars-cov2-but-findings-inconclusive-says-who-expert-group/

 

 

  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

WHO Scientific advisory group issues report on origins of COVID-19

WHO announcement, 27 June 2025

 

"The WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), a panel of 27 independent, international, multidisciplinary experts, today published its report on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

...

In its report, SAGO considered available evidence for the main hypotheses for the origins of COVID-19 and concluded that “the weight of available evidence…suggests zoonotic spillover…either directly from bats or through an intermediate host.”

...

WHO requested that China share hundreds of genetic sequences from individuals with COVID-19 early in the pandemic, more detailed information about the animals sold at markets in Wuhan, and information on work done and biosafety conditions at laboratories in Wuhan. To date, China has not shared this information either with SAGO or WHO."

 

(more)

 

https://www.who.int/news/item/27-06-2025-who-scientific-advisory-group-issues-report-on-origins-of-covid-19

 

 

[connda]

🐂💩 Bravo Sierra 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The WHO report document:

 

Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO)
Independent assessment of the origins of SARS-CoV-2

 

Publication Date 27 June 2025

 

Executive summary

...

"While most available and accessible published scientific evidence supports hypothesis #1, zoonotic transmission from animals, possibly from bats or an intermediate host to humans, SAGO is not currently able to conclude exactly when, where and how SARS-CoV-2 first entered the human population.

...

Without information to fully assess the nature of the work on coronaviruses in Wuhan laboratories, nor information about the conditions under which this work was done, it is not possible for SAGO to assess whether the first human infection(s) may have resulted due to a research related event or breach in laboratory biosafety.

...

To conclude, while a zoonotic origin with spillover from animals to humans is currently considered the best supported hypothesis by the available scientific data, until requests for further information are met or more scientific data becomes available, the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it entered the human population will remain inconclusive."

 

(more)

 

https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/documents/epp/sago/independent-assessment-of-the-origins-of-sars-cov-2-by-sago.pdf?sfvrsn=b0f90ad4_4&download=true

 

Poster's comment - quoting of the report above in a more meaningful, comprehensive way is constrained by the forum's fair use policy limiting the amount of allowed quoted content.

 

[proton]

So they found out bugger all then in 4 years, it was bats or lab before they started 😝

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Worth noting, the Executive Summary of the above report, in its introductory comments, recites the following facts regarding the global COVID pandemic:

 

--from December 2019 thru May 2023 when the WHO ended its "public health emergency of international concern" declaration, more than 7 million deaths were reported to the WHO. But the WHO estimates the "true toll" of the pandemic to have caused at least 20 million deaths globally based on excess deaths estimates.

 

--The WHO also estimated the global economic losses associated with the COVID pandemic at $11 trillion to $16 trillion USD, citing the "severe disruption to societies and livelihoods."

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 minutes ago, proton said:

So they found out bugger all then in 4 years, it was bats or lab before they started 😝

 

No... they found:

 

"...a zoonotic origin with spillover from animals to humans is currently considered the best supported hypothesis by the available scientific data, until requests for further information are met or more scientific data becomes available..."

[blaze master]

So inconclusive.

[Red Phoenix]

Cannot bring myself to read one more report on the Bat or Lab discussion. 

Imo the obsession with determining the 'origins of the virus' is nothing more than a deliberate fabrication to distract from far more important Covid-19 related questions. 

[impulse]

Paid shills, doing what they're paid to do.

 

 

[MicroB]

On 6/27/2025 at 6:25 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

No... they found:

 

"...a zoonotic origin with spillover from animals to humans is currently considered the best supported hypothesis by the available scientific data, until requests for further information are met or more scientific data becomes available..."

 

107 years after, we still don't really know where Spanish Flu came from. There is circumstantial evidence for various theories.

 

One of the more recent theories, and probably the most likely, is that the strain emerged in China during 1916-17. This was in a region that France and Britain recruited coolies from. A unit transected Canada into Kansas in 1917. They likely infected American troops gathering for deployment to Europe. It might have remained just another flu strain but for timing. It reached the Western Front in the winter of 1918. The long war had come to an end. Casualty clearinng stations on both sides were filled to capacity with wounded men, but also men with trench foot, blood infection.

 

At the end of the War, the inclination was to clear the hospitals ASAP, leaving relatively fit healthy men in trenches, in encampments. The virus ran through this group, resulting in reinfections, essentially training a superbug. Then you have mass movement of refugees going home in multiple directions.

 

Nearly every pandemic in human history is associated with some change in human behaviour. COVID-19 will probably end up being the Globalisation Pandemic; a Pandemic enabled by rapid mass ransportation, and corporate links between a fairly obscure Chinese provincial city and the European car and textile industries. The virus did a number in Wuhan, but didn't become a broader China issue until later. But it really got out of hand when it hit Italy (a more virulant version hit Europe than hit the US West coast; the US West coast strain was essentially due to movements of Chinese diaspora. But in Europe, it was industry executives in Italy and Germany, coupled by the ski season. Many of the early cases in the UK were associated with a medical conference in Singapore, where some of the attendees afterwards returned to the UK after a cheeky ski holiday with mates in Austria.

 

I've worked in BSL-2 through BSL-4 labs since 1988, so I am very aware of their construction and operation. I'm aware of the physical controls that are on top of process controls used in BSL-4 lab.

 

The Zoonitic origin is still the most plausible. You can never rule any theory out for anything, unless you have evidence to discount that theory. But you can rank likelihood based on a range of factors. The second most likely theory is a lab leak, but not from the research labs. The Wuhan Institute was also a reference lab. Reference labs serve to validate the findings of hospital labs, but are also involved in routine disease surveillance. Reference labs don't seek to propagate pathogen. Consequently these labs might be BSL 2 or 2+. They would be receiving thousands of specimens per day for further investigation. Its worth remembering that every city on the planet has at least one hospital, and that one hospital will have a pathology laboratory, also handling thousands of patient specimens a day. Two of the UK's BSL4 high containment labs are in central London. If lab leaks were as easy as some suppose, then we would be knee deep in outbreaks; there are far worse operated path labs in other countries besides China, eg some of the Ebola labs in West Africa were pretty grim.