A group of scientists has published a letter in the journal Science calling for further investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks.
The joint China-World Health Organization (WHO) findings released in March left many questions unanswered.
As WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus remarked in response to the report, "All hypotheses remain on the table," including transmission through food markets and via a less likely biolab leak.
The letter's 18 signatories, which include University of Arizona's Michael Worobey, call for work that is "transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight and responsibly managed."
That includes further expeditions and greater access to samples and raw data, which were mainly analyzed by scientists in China and which members of the WHO research team said were difficult to access.
Worobey, who leads UA's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department, was not available for comment.
