Chinese scientists quietly uploaded new data from Wuhan wet market pointing to raccoon dog as COVID source instead of lab leak, WHO demands transparency



The World Health Organization responded to reports that new data from Wuhan wet markets pointed to the raccoon dog as the source of the coronavirus pandemic instead of a lab leak.

The new data was uploaded to an international database by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in January and then deleted in March after scientists stumbled on the new information.

It reportedly contained genetic data garnered from samples in the Wuhan wet market from 2020.

In a media briefing on Friday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus chastised China for not supplying the information earlier and called for all of the data to be released.

“This data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer, and every piece of data relating to studying the origins of COVID-19 needs to be shared with the international community immediately,” he explained.

“This data could have – and should have – been shared three years ago," Tedros added.

WHO infectious disease epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove cautioned that the data did not mean that the virus had been found in any animal, nor did it prove that the disease jumped from animals to people.

"What the data showed, the results showed that was presented to us, was that there's molecular evidence of animals in the market and those animals included raccoon dogs as well as a number of other animal species," said Van Kerkhove.

"So again more information needs to be available on the data itself, and accessible to others around the world, but also that the analysis with that date needs to shared so that a discussion and a debate can be had to understand its full implications," she concluded.

In February, a report from the U.S. Department of Energy found that a leak from a Chinese laboratory was likely the source of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results," said Tedros at the briefing.

Here's a news video about the development:

COVID-19 may have originated in raccoon dogs in Chinese market, report says www.youtube.com

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

China pushes theory that coronavirus originated in a lab, but says it was from a US bio-weapon lab



Chinese state media are coming around to the theory that the coronavirus might have come from a laboratory, but only because they want to put the blame on the United States.

Reuters reported Thursday that a senior Chinese epidemiologist was calling on the United States to be investigated as the source of a laboratory leak that led to the global pandemic.

Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, based his opinion on a report from the U.S. National Institutes for Health (NIH) that said at least seven people in the U.S. were infected with SARS-CoV-2 before official cases were reported.

Guang told the Global Times, a Chinese state-owned tabloid, that the U.S. was slow to test for the virus in the early weeks of the pandemic.

"All bio-weapons related subjects that the country has should be subject to scrutiny," said Guang to the tabloid.

He also pointed out that the U.S. has many biological laboratories.

Experts have debated whether the virus originated in nature or if it could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. While the Wuhan lab leak theory was initially mocked as a conspiracy theory motivated by racism against China, more scientists have begrudgingly admitted that the hypothesis is possible.

On Wednesday, Harvard and MIT researcher Alina Chan admitted that many scientists and experts were motivated by politics when previously ridiculing the Wuhan lab leak theory.

"At the time, it was scarier to be associated with Trump and to become a tool for racists, so people didn't want to publicly call for an investigation into lab origins," Chan said.

President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to revisit the theory and investigate the evidence that China might have covered up.

Here's more on the Wuhan lab leak theory:

Media coverage of COVID-19 lab leak theory under scrutinywww.youtube.com