When a WHO-led panel travelled to China earlier this year to investigate the origins of the COVIDpandemic, a top official said he was seriously concerned about safety standards at a laboratory close to the seafood market where the first human cases were detected, according to a documentary released Thursday by Danish television channel TV2.

In the documentary, titled “The Virus Mystery”, Peter Ben Embarek said the Chinese researchers were against the theory that COVID-19 pandemic emerged from a genetically modified virus that leaked from the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), the Washington Post reported.

 “In the beginning, they did not want anything about the lab (in the report), since it was impossible, hence there was no need to waste time on that,” the Post quoted Embarek as saying during the interview.   “We insisted on including it, because it was part of the whole issue about where the virus originated,” he added. 

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