WHO Failed to Investigate Deleted Virology Database and Evidence Indicating Earlier Start of Pandemic

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom (L) shakes hands with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping before a meeting in Beijing on Jan. 28, 2020. Naohiko Hatta/Pool/Getty Images

Commentary

On Sept. 12, 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s database of viral sequences was taken offline. The deleted database, which has never been publicly recovered, contained more than 22,000 unpublished samples and sequences of bat and rodent viruses.