WHO says COVID-19 origin needs more studies as top expert's lab 'concern' made public for first time

The lead investigator in the World Health Organization's probe into the origins of the coronavirus in China has admitted that the possibility of a lab leak is not as "extremely unlikely" as the WHO had claimed back in February.

On Thursday, the WHO in a new statement admitted that there was possibility of a lab leak, according to Fox News.

"On review of the phase one study report, WHO determined that there was insufficient scientific evidence to rule any of the hypotheses out," the WHO said.

"Specifically, in order to address the 'lab hypothesis,' it is important to have access to all data and consider scientific best practice and look at the mechanisms WHO already has in place."

"Analyzing and improving lab safety and protocols in all laboratories around the world, including in China, is important for our collective biosafety and security," the WHO statement continued.

This past spring, lead investigator Dr. Peter Ben Embarek told Danish media in an TV2 documentary that "an employee who was infected in the field by taking samples falls under one of the probable hypotheses." That documentary aired on Thursday.

"In that case, it would then be a laboratory worker instead of a random villager or other person who has regular contact with bats," he said. "So it is actually in the probable category."

The WHO confirmed in a statement Thursday that Ben Embarek was "accurately quoted" in the Danish interview.

In February his team stated in a long awaited report on the origins of COVID-19 that the lab leak theory was unlikely.

"The findings suggest that the laboratory incidents hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population," said Ben Embarek at the time.

The lab leak theory had been discredited until recently, with China rejecting the theory from the start has been accused of withholding or destroying evidence, and the Trump administration accusing the WHO of caving to pressure from the Chinese government.

It was also revealed in the Danish documentary that Ben Embarek had spoken about different conclusions in a conference call as early as January.

Workers at the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wuhan branch were performing lab work on coronaviruses "without potentially having the same level of expertise or safety or who knows," he said.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been targeted as a due to its location as a potential source of the virus, but the Chinese CDC also has a lab in Wuhan.

"What is more concerning to me is the other lab," Ben Embarek says in the documentary, according to an Associated Press translation. "The one that is next to the market."

According to Fox News, "The Chinese CDC lab is also in Wuhan, and just 500 yards away from the Huanan market where many early cases of the virus were reported."

With the lab leak theory gaining traction in recent months, President Joe Biden ordered an independent investigation of U.S. intelligence on the matter earlier this year.