China has attacked the theory that the coronavirus pandemic may have originated as a leak from a Chinese laboratory as a politically motivated lie.
FILE - Marion Koopmans, right, and Peter Ben Embarek, center, of the World Health Organization team say farewell to their Chinese counterpart Liang Wannian, left, after a WHO-China Joint Study Press Conference at the end of the WHO mission in Wuhan, China on Feb. 9, 2021. Experts drafted by the World Health Organization to help investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic say further research is needed to determine how COVID-19 first began.
“The lab leak theory is totally a lie concocted by anti-China forces for political purposes, which has nothing to do with science," Zhao said at a daily briefing.“We always supported and participated in science-based global virus tracing, but we firmly opposed any forms of political manipulation," he said, repeating China's long-standing explanation for delaying or rejecting further investigations into the virus's origins.
However, in the Thursday report, WHO’s expert group said “key pieces of data” to explain how the pandemic began were still missing. The scientists said the group would “remain open to any and all scientific evidence that becomes available in the future to allow for comprehensive testing of all reasonable hypotheses.”
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