The World Health Organization (WHO) wanted to return to Wuhan to continue investigating the origin of covid-19, exploring the possibility that it came out of a laboratory. But China has refused, saying that the intention of the international institution is "arrogant" and "surprising" after the mission that took place in January this year.

The director-general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wants to analyze the Wuhan laboratory and all those that were active in the region and in which the first cases of covid-19 were identified. Furthermore, he added that as a laboratory technician and immunologist who has worked in laboratories, he knows that "accidents happen and are common."

After the first mission, Adhanom criticized how China had managed the presence of the investigators. Beijing settled it saying that the WHO investigation in China had already ended and demanded that the origin of the virus be investigated in other countries.

The theory that the coronavirus could have its origin in a Wuhan laboratory that studies this type of virus has not been ruled out. But China considers that contemplating this option "does not respect common sense and goes against science." But the truth is that WHO experts were not allowed to travel to the first focus of the pandemic until more than a year after the first cases were recognized.

The international mission considered that the “most probable” hypothesis was the animal origin of the virus, which could have jumped from a bat to a human being through a third animal that acted as a reservoir. But that theory has not yet been proven. The possibility of the coronavirus escaping from a laboratory was deemed "highly unlikely." It also recommended a more detailed investigation.

The lack of real knowledge of the origin of a disease that continues to cause thousands of deaths every day around the world for almost a year and a half is the main motivation of the WHO. When he presented his conclusions in March, his secretary-general already complained about the little data that China had provided. He announced that he would ask that the experts be able to return to Wuhan and that all the hypotheses would have to be examined in March detail.

The United States has been the country that has most insisted on the need to send a new mission to China that can continue to study the origin of covid-19. In addition, the Biden Administration commissioned intelligence services to assess whether it is really possible that the virus escaped from a laboratory. The European Union showed him its support. The conclusions will be ready at the end of August.

The U.S. initiative has not helped ease tension with China. The two superpowers have long clashed in the field of technology, defence and even the space race in a new version of the Cold War. In a month, we will know how the next battle is fought.