On Monday, a senior expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) made a startling claim that the novel coronavirus might not have originated from Wuhan, China.

In the early months of January 2020, Wuhan became the epicenter of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak, prompting officials to conclude that the virus might have originated from an exotic animal market. However, in a recent remark by Dr. Michael Ryan, the executive director of the Health Emergencies Program at the United Nations, a two-person fact-finding team revealed that it might not be the case.

The UN executive director claimed that although the first cluster of COVID-19 cases appeared in Wuhan, they will need a more “extensive retrospective epidemiological study” as to when and how the animal to human transmission occurred.

In a press briefing, Ryan appeared alongside the controversial WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The Director-General said that the WHO sent a two-person team to investigate and “lay the groundwork” to identify the virus’s real origin.

Ryan added that the team had not returned yet, nor where they debriefed. He explained that they are trying to fill in the gaps between what he called an “epidemiological landscape.” Ryan added that they would have to take a closer look at the first cases and clusters of coronavirus patients to determine the point as to how the animal-human transmission occurred.

Moreover, he cited that the transmission does not necessarily happen in Wuhan and could have occurred elsewhere. Ryan said, “The fact that that fire alarm was triggered doesn’t necessarily mean that is where the disease crossed from animals into humans.”

Initially, China’s health officials believed that the virus originated from the Huanan wet market, where vendors are selling live exotic animals such as snakes, beavers, porcupines, baby crocodiles, and bats. , and bats. On January 1, the Chinese government ordered its temporary closure, and by January 26, China had already banned the consumption of wild animals. The communist government also disinfected the market with bleach, therefore destroying earlier microbial evidence.

The move led US officials to doubt whether China is trying to cover up their failure to stop the spread. In fact, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized China’s move noting that it made it difficult for experts to trace earlier samples.

However, aside from the speculations that the virus might have originated from a wet market, the Trump administration believed that it came from a lab, specifically since the city also housed the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a research institution where scientists conduct studies about the coronaviruses. US officials have already launched an investigation on the matter.

What’s even more concerning is that early on, the WHO faced grave accusations of an alleged Chinese cover-up. In fact, instead of raising the alarm, the renowned health organization claimed that there was no evidence that a human to human transmission can occur.

According to a report from the Business Insider, an anonymous source from the WHO explained that the social media post came from a need to “balance out” the media.