The World Health Organization has roundly dismissed the Trump administration’s pet theory that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab. The executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program, Michael Ryan, said the U.S. has yet to produce any kind of evidence to support President Trump’s repeated claims. Ryan said: “From our perspective, this remains speculative… if that data and evidence is available, then it will be for the United States government to decide whether and when it can be shared, but it is difficult for the WHO to operate in an information vacuum in that regard.” Pouring further cold water on the notion are reports in Australia claiming that a “dossier” touted by the Trump administration to support the laboratory theory was compiled from news reports rather than actual intelligence material from the “Five Eyes” spy network of Australia, the U.S., New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
