Overview

• SAGO’s four-year inquiry concludes that available evidence favors an animal-to-human spillover while lacking key data needed to exclude a lab accident.
• WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said all origin hypotheses remain viable and urged China to share hundreds of early viral genome sequences, market data, and laboratory biosafety records.
• Marietjie Venter, SAGO chair, acknowledged that most published data support a bat-to-human jump but noted the group could not investigate or dismiss the lab-leak hypothesis without additional information.
• The 27-member committee failed to reach consensus, with one expert resigning and three others requesting removal from the report over unresolved disagreements.
• WHO reiterated the need for full transparency from China and other nations to fill persistent gaps in genetic, market, and lab documentation and to strengthen future pandemic preparedness.