How, exactly did COVID-19 begin?
It's a 300-page tome of a report, exploring everything from frozen food to sewage in Spain.
The World Health Organization-led investigation into COVID-19's origins presented its results yesterday. The report ranks scenarios for the virus's emergence from the most to least likely, with transmission from bats through an intermediary animal at the top and a leak from a laboratory at the bottom.
But the report doesn't offer firm conclusions, and longstanding concerns over China's transparency loomed over the investigation's findings. Within hours of its release, Canada joined 12 other countries in a statement raising concerns about delays and limited access to data in the study.
Today on Front Burner, Nature senior reporter Amy Maxmen walks us through what's in this report, why we've yet to solve the COVID-19 mystery, and whether concerns over its independence are more political than scientific.