---
title: "WHO Investigators Think They Found Where the Pandemic Really Began"
description: "The World Health Organization investigators probing the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic finally seem to have some answers."
date: "2021-03-17"
modified: "2021-03-17"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/who-investigators-found-pandemic-began"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
  - "health"
  - "world health organization"
---

# WHO Investigators Think They Found Where the Pandemic Really Began

![The World Health Organization investigators probing the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic finally seem to have some answers.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/yunnan.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Phoenix Han via Unsplash\</em\>*

After conducting an exhaustive probe into how the coronavirus pandemic [actually began](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/who-team-investigate-covid-origins-china>) within China, World Health Organization (WHO) investigators believe they've figured it out.

The WHO plans to release a full report on the investigation in the coming weeks, but [one member of the team told *NPR*](<https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/03/15/977527808/who-points-to-wildlife-farms-in-southwest-china-as-likely-source-of-pandemic>) this week that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 likely first jumped from animals to humans in one of several wildlife farms in southern China.

These farms were run by the government as a means to lift remote rural communities out of poverty, *NPR* reports. They were largely successful. The wildlife farms became a huge industry and supplied meat to many places in the country — including the market in Wuhan that was originally thought to be the pandemic's epicenter.

Though the WHO investigators don't know which animals at which farm first spread the coronavirus to humans, many of the animals bred in captivity were capable of doing so, *[Live Science ](<https://www.livescience.com/who-says-china-wildlife-farms-may-be-source-covid-19.html>)*[notes](<https://www.livescience.com/who-says-china-wildlife-farms-may-be-source-covid-19.html>).

"They take exotic animals, like civets, porcupines, pangolins, raccoon dogs, and bamboo rats, and they breed them in captivity," disease ecologist and WHO investigator Peter Daszak told *NPR*.

Earlier in the investigation, the WHO found that the coronavirus had likely [been spreading in China](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/who-investigators-find-evidence-covid-circulating-china-long-before-pandemic>) well before the Wuhan market outbreak, raising the question of where it actually came from. One possible answer had been that the coronavirus leaked out of the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology, but [investigators said last month](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/who-extremely-unlikely-covid-escaped-chinese-lab>) that it seemed far more likely that the virus initially jumped to humans outside of Wuhan then made its way to the city.

But the WHO isn't the only one who noticed that the farms might play a role. The Chinese government ordered them shut down and the animals disposed of back in February 2020 — a move that Daszak and the WHO applauded.

"China closes that pathway down for a reason," Daszak told *NPR*. "The reason was, back in February 2020, they believed this was the most likely pathway \[for the coronavirus to spread to Wuhan\]. And when the WHO report comes out... we believe it's the most likely pathway too."

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)