[The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged China to share data to help understand the origins of Covid-19, five years on from the start of the pandemic in Wuhan. In December 2019, WHO’s China office noted a cluster of “pneumonia” cases in a statement from health authorities in Wuhan. Three weeks later, Chinese authorities locked down the city of 11 million, citing fears of a rapidly spreading virus.
As authorities would later learn, the coronavirus had already spread far beyond China. While the world has largely moved on from the pandemic, many questions remain about the source of a virus that killed at least seven million people and crippled health care systems. Experts say China’s opacity has made it harder to find answers to the pandemic’s origins.
China has defended its handling of Covid-19 data, saying it has shared the most data and research results on the issue and made the greatest contribution to global tracing research. Many scientists believe the virus originated from a natural animal spillover, while some researchers have questioned whether it could have leaked from a laboratory.
The WHO has criticized China’s tight control of data access, with one official calling its lack of data disclosure “simply inexcusable” in 2023. Chinese officials responded, saying China had provided the WHO with all information it had on the origins of the virus without withholding any cases, samples, or test results.
In 2023, WHO got access to certain data from workers at the market, including raw genetic sequences. An analysis of the data, published in a peer-reviewed journal, showed that coronavirus-susceptible animals and the virus were present at a specific section of the market, but it did not confirm whether the animals were infected.
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