WHO report finds coronavirus probably emerged in bats, ‘extremely unlikely’ to be result of lab leak
The coronavirus is likely to have emerged in bats and spread to another animal before it jumped into the human population, according to a study from the World Health Organization and Chinese scientists that is scheduled to be released Tuesday.The 123-page report, which NBC News obtained ahead of its release, also found that it’s “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab, a theory that has flourished among China skeptics even though it is based largely on circumstantial evidence.The findings are the result of a joint study by Chinese scientists and a WHO-led team that was in China last month to investigate the virus’s origin. The inquiry has been the center of political tensions from its start; Biden administration officials have faulted China for what they say is a lack of transparency about how the virus emerged. Other critics said the inquiry was insufficient because many of the Chinese scientists involved with it are affiliated with government-run institutions and because the investigators didn’t have full access to lab records and raw data.In the report, the research team detailed the most likely scenarios that caused the virus to spill over into humans, but many questions remain unanswered. Identifying the source
