WHO official talks about Covid 'patient zero', suggests probable origin of pandemic

It was in late 2019 that the first case of Covid infection was detected in China. The infection soon spread all across the world like a wildfire and emerged as a global pandemic. Ever since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, several top world leaders and medical experts had suggested that the pandemic might have originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Even though China has several times denied these allegations, recent developments, and China's denial to give permission for a second WHO probe have made many believe that the origin of the pandemic could be the Chinese laboratory. And now, Dr Peter Ben Embarek a Danish food scientist and program manager at World Health Organization has suggested that the coronavirus patient zero may have been infected by a bat during laboratory work. 

Virus jumped from bats to humans

Embarek suggested the lab leak theory while talking to Danish television channel TV2. According to Embarek, the Covid infection might have initially happened while collecting bats in connection with the research being conducted in the Wuhan lab. 

"An employee who was infected in the field by taking samples falls under one of the probable hypotheses. It could be that an employee from a lab who has been infected in the field while he or she was collecting samples in a bat cave. This is where the virus jumps directly from a bat to a human. In that case, it would then be a laboratory worker instead of a random villager or another person who has regular contact with bats," said Embarek. 

Live bats locked up in cages

A few months back, a creepy video from the Wuhan Institute of Virology had surfaced online, and it showed live bats locked up in cages. The clip also triggered a fresh wave of controversy, and several people started claiming that the Covid pandemic might have escaped from the laboratory, either intentionally or accidentally. 

Earlier, Chinese virologist Dr Le-Meng Yan had also claimed that the coronavirus pandemic was intentionally released by China as a bioweapon. Yan also added that China has been repeatedly denying the allegations surrounding laboratory lab leak theory and is using misinformation to mislead the world.