The team of experts organized by the WHO to investigate the origin of the COVID-19 virus have dismissed claims it leaked from a Chinese laboratory and emphasized that their research was cohesive and comprehensive. "To this day, no scientific evidence has been found to back the theory that the virus was made by humans in a lab. Reckless propagation of the theory that the virus originated in a lab should be discarded," said Wu Zhiqiang, a researcher at the Institute of Pathogen Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College. Wu was a member of an international team that visited Wuhan in Hubei province from Jan 14 to Feb 10 to study the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The team was convened by the World Health Organization and consisted of 17 Chinese and 17 foreign experts. "Respecting scientific facts was the bedrock for the launch of the mission. During the mission, Chinese and foreign experts came together as a whole and conducted research with the prerequisite of absolute openness and transparency," Wu said.