The World Health Organization has changed tact and now says the coronavirus lab theory could have roots.
Many genuinely thought the virus somehow escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the idea morphed into a massive conspiracy theory.
Experts, along with The WHO, were quick to rule out the concept early into the pandemic and insisted Covid-19 came from the wild and was the result of animal-to-human transmission.
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However, now WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was premature to completely rule out the theory.
He said China needs to be 'transparent, open and cooperate' as investigators look into the origin of the coronavirus and he's begging the country to hand over 'raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic'.
The WHO revealed in a report last year that the lab leak theory was 'extremely unlikely'.
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But the director-general said: "I was a lab technician myself, I'm an immunologist, and I have worked in the lab, and lab accidents happen. It's common."
A team of scientists was granted entry to China earlier this year to study where the virus might have come from following international pressure for a global investigation.
Australia lead the charge for this independent investigation in the hope the information would prevent a pandemic in the future.
The lab leak theory was given a boost in legitimacy back in May when US President Joe Biden asked American intelligence agencies to look into it.
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"The United States will also keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence," he said.
He claimed one agency leaned toward the lab leak theory and another was more insistent on it being a naturally formed virus.
Mr Biden added each had 'low or moderate confidence' in their beliefs.
A former investigator has admitted it would probably take a Chinese defector to leak information about Covid-19's official origins.
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David Asher, who was the special coordinator for investigations in the arms control bureau of the Department of State, told the ABC's 7:30: "How about $15 million to the first scientist out of the Wuhan Institute [of Virology] that defects to the United States or Australia?
"There's a way to play the Cold War smart. I got lots of Chinese who I've spoken to. They've risked their lives probably to talk to us. But they're willing to do that.
"Just because they have a totalitarian communist state that's celebrating a 100th anniversary as a party, doesn't mean that they are impenetrable, doesn't mean we can't figure out what happened."
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: News, Coronavirus