According to a WHO panel, the absence of Chinese data has masked the pandemic’s roots.

According to a WHO panel, the absence of Chinese data has masked the pandemic’s roots.

The World Health Organization reported that its most recent examination into the causes of COVID-19 was inconclusive, primarily because to missing data from China, another setback in its years-long quest to identify the pandemic’s roots.

According to the WHO expert panel study, the novel coronavirus that is the source of COVID-19 most likely originated from animals, most likely bats. This finding is consistent with the WHO’s earlier research on the matter in 2021, which led to a trip to China.

It was unable to pinpoint precisely how the virus was originally transmitted to people due to the lack of data from China, where the first COVID-19 cases were reported in December 2019.

The findings will give the WHO and its health emergency protocols a boost as they work to repair themselves after years of criticism for how they handled the pandemic.

According to the report, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the UN’s WHO, wrote to the Chinese government twice in February 2022 to request more details.

The causes of the pandemic, which has killed at least 15 million people, have been politicised. According to scientists, figuring out what happened is crucial to preventing future pandemic epidemics.