Experts: Covid likely jumped to humans from bats through ‘missing link’

An international expert mission to Wuhan concluded in a report seen Monday that Covid-19 likely first passed to humans from a bat through an intermediary animal, with investigators all but ruling out a laboratory leak.

The intermediate host hypothesis was deemed “likely to very likely”, while the theory that the virus escaped from a lab was seen as “extremely unlikely”, according to a copy of the long-awaited final report obtained by AFP before its official release.

The report comes as dramatic infection spikes in Europe have forced a tightening of unpopular restrictions across the continent, and amid warnings that the United States could suffer a similar surge if curbs are eased too quickly.

In sharp contrast, people in England were set for what newspapers dubbed “Happy Monday”, with stay-at-home orders relaxed as rapid vaccinations appeared to drive down infection rates there.

As countries rush to vaccinate and stem the spread of Covid-19, the mystery at the very heart of the pandemic — how the virus that causes the disease first jumped to humans — remains unsolved.

The report from the international mission to Wuhan has therefore been keenly anticipated ever since the expert team left China more than a month ago.

– Cold trail? –

Delays in the publication of the findings, drafted in collaboration with the team’s Chinese counterparts, had been blamed on coordination and translation issues, even as a diplomatic tug-of-war raged in the background over the report’s contents.

The repeated delays sparked renewed criticism of the UN health agency’s slow actions in getting the team to Wuhan in the first place.

The experts tasked with probing Covid-19’s origins only arrived there in January, more than a year after the first cases surfaced in the Chinese city in December 2019, sparking fears the trail had gone cold.

In the 15 months since the coronavirus emerged, the pandemic has engulfed the planet, killing nearly 2.8 million people and shredding the global economy. Punch