LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#COVID19--AIDS Healthcare Foundation has repeatedly called for the depoliticization of the investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and for all reasonable hypotheses to be studied. Ahead of the third anniversary of the World Health Organization belatedly declaring COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, there is renewed debate around the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis as a possible source of the outbreak.

�China has not been fully cooperative with the global efforts to establish the origins of COVID-19 � a well-documented fact noted by the WHO, among others. With this in mind, categorical declarations from proponents and detractors of the lab leak hypothesis do a disservice to global public health � for as long as key pieces of information are missing, we cannot rule out the lab leak as much as we cannot rule out zoonotic transmission, even though so far no direct infection vector has been found in animals,� said AHF President Michael Weinstein. �If the origin of COVID-19 remains forever a mystery, we are bound to remain vulnerable to future outbreaks. This pandemic has made it abundantly clear, COVID-19 is not a one-off event, and we must be prepared to protect the world from millions of avoidable deaths. The investigation must continue with due diligence being given to all reasonable possibilities.�

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)

AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.7 million people in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.

Contacts

US MEDIA CONTACT:

Ged Kenslea, Senior Director, Communications, AHF

+1 323 308 1833 work +1.323.791.5526 mobile

[email protected]

Denys Nazarov, Director of Global Policy & Communications, AHF

+1 323.308.1829

[email protected]