A large cache of intelligence information that has yet to be fully analyzed could hold clues to the origin of COVID-19, officials say.
official in the Clinton administration, current adviser to the WHO and Atlantic Council senior fellow, told ABC News. Metzl leads a group of two dozen scientists, which has long called for a deeper, independent probe into COVID-19's origins, including a potential lab leak.Medical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital, Jan. 17, 2020, in Wuhan, Hubei, China.
His new insistence on a"full, transparent, evidence-based" international probe with"access to all relevant data and evidence" from China coincides with the WHO's World Health Assembly -- where next steps in the investigation have been raised -- and ups the ante on both allies and American agencies.
The long-awaited March WHO-led report came to no firm conclusions on COVID-19's origins. Critics argued the Chinese government's resistance to transparencyA WHO spokesperson said the group is"reviewing the recommendations" from the report, and preparing for the next phase of study.