An international team of experts has left Wuhan, China, still far from understanding the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 2.8 million people worldwide. And it is not clear whether China will permit outside experts to keep digging. nyti.ms/3cyoflq
For 27 days, a team of WHO scientists searched for clues in Wuhan and pressed Chinese officials for data. But far more work is needed to understand how the pandemic began, their report says, and it is not clear that Beijing will cooperate. nyti.ms/3m4vVz0 
A 124-page report of the joint inquiry by the WHO and China — to be released on Tuesday but leaked on Monday — says that China still does not have the data to indicate how or when the virus began spreading. Some skeptics say that China may have more information than it admits.
The Chinese government has repeatedly tried to bend the investigation to its advantage. The report was written by 17 scientists chosen by the WHO and 17 Chinese scientists, many of whom hold official positions or work at government-run institutions.
The report does little to allay Western concerns about the Chinese Communist Party's role. The Chinese scientists supplied all the research data for analysis, and it is not clear whether the team selected by the WHO sought access to other data or permission to collect more.
The enduring theory remains that the virus originated in bats, jumped to another animal, then mutated in a way that enabled it to transmit to humans. To answer remaining questions, the report recommends further studies of human infections and testing of livestock and wildlife.
The expert team dismisses as “extremely unlikely” the possibility that the coronavirus emerged accidentally from a Chinese laboratory, but some scientists say that is an important question to explore. Read more about the report. nyti.ms/3fy4GLM
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