Jon CohenScience's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.The two-person team from the World Health Organization (WHO) traveling to China today to address the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to come home with answers.
Rather, the duo—an epidemiologist and an animal health expert whose names have not been released—will discuss with Chinese officials the scope of a larger international mission later, according to a WHO statement.But this initial trip offers real hope that the mystery of the virus’ origins, which has become a political powder keg and the subject of countless conspiracy theories, will finally be investigated more thoroughly and transparently.