Senior WHO Official Expressed Doubts that COVID-19 Began in Wet Market – U.S. Right to Know

A senior World Health Organization expert expressed skepticism in 2020 that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a wet market, according to a U.S. State Department cable obtained by U.S. Right to Know.

The November 20, 2020 cable provides a window into the views of a high-ranking WHO expert about the pandemic s origin, and contrasts with the certainty of some Western virologists that the pandemic crossed over from wildlife at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China.  This so-called wet-market sold farmed and exotic imported animals and animal products, some of which are known carriers of coronaviruses.

The Huanan market has become a focal point in the controversy over the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Many proponents of the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 arose naturally say early cases emanated from its wildlife stalls. Hypotheses involving other natural sources or the city s nearby coronavirus labs have largely been dismissed or ignored.   

But the cable reports that Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO s Health Emergencies Programme and a top aide to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was not convinced by the wet market hypothesis.

Ryan indicated that there could be other original sources of the virus outside of the market, according to a summary of his statements relayed in the cable from the U.S. Mission in Geneva.  

Many of the first cases of COVID-19 & were not associated with the market itself, the summary of Ryan s statements reads. There was likely human-to-human transmission prior to the identification of the cluster at the market.  

via usrtk.org

While this appears to be a fact, it is inconsistent with the proto-emergence of the forthcoming Scientific consensus, and therefore can be dismissed.