The expert described the hypothesis that it arrived in Wuhan through an intermediate host as “between probable and very probable”, and that the outbreak in the city originated from frozen products, a theory in which Beijing has made emphasized since 2020, as “probable”.
In the opinion of the experts, that the origin of the infections in Wuhan is in a laboratory is “extremely unlikely”, Zhou said.
The WHO expert group investigating the origin of the coronavirus recently raised the possibility that the raccoon dog, an animal sold in the Wuhan market where the pandemic began, was key in transmitting the pathogen to humans.
Tedros emphasized this week that the different hypotheses about the origin of the coronavirus, which has caused almost seven million deaths worldwide, continue to stand.
