Nature Magazine reported Tuesday that the second phase of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVID origins report has been “quietly shelved…citing ongoing challenges over attempts to conduct crucial studies in China.”

This second phase was announced in August 2021, after WHO officials finally admitted problems with the first report, which was released in March 2021. That delegation, led by EcoHealth Alliance’s Dr. Peter Daszak (before we knew just how much involvement he had in the weaponization of coronaviruses) released a report stating that it was “extremely unlikely” that COVID-19 originated in a lab. That report was considered in the media as a final “debunking” of the lab leak theory, even though the WHO had purposely concealed information that the Chinese government had not been forthcoming with raw data, making a meaningful analysis impossible.

As Scott Hounsell reported in July 2021, it was only through the determination of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Republican lawmakers that the WHO even revised its first report, let alone authorized a second report.

Sen. Rand Paul reignited the debate about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 in May when he grilled Dr. Anthony Fauci during a Senate hearing. Within days a group of prominent virologists published a letter stating that the World Health Organization’s “investigation” wasn’t sufficient and that the lab leak theory should be re-investigated. Only then did our benevolent media and tech overlords decide that we could again approach the subject, and they too began looking into the matter to find out exactly what we knew all along:  That the lab-leak theory isn’t just possible, it is probable.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist who’s generally been very combative on social media with anyone suggesting that a lab leak theory should be investigated, admitted to Nature that the WHO team can’t do their job because China won’t allow them to.

Researchers say they are disappointed that the investigation isn’t going ahead, because understanding how the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 first infected people is important for preventing future outbreaks. But without access to China, there is little that the WHO can do to advance the studies, says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. “Their hands are really tied.”

Another virologist says that the WHO should be more vocal that Chinese authorities are stonewalling the investigation.

Gerald Keusch, associate director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory Institute at Boston University in Massachusetts, says the origins investigation was “poorly handled by the global community. It was poorly handled by China. It was poorly handled by the WHO.” The WHO should have been relentless in creating a positive working relationship with the Chinese authorities, says Keusch; if it was being stonewalled, it should have been honest about that.

Officials in Beijing will never give anyone information proving that COVID-19 was developed as part of their virus weaponization program, and unless someone like Dong Jingwei has information showing whether it was intentionally or accidentally released, we will likely never know the answer to that question. So, the international community should just tell Beijing that in the absence of information we have no choice but to blame China for the release of the virus and the ensuing damage.