Portrait Prof Dr Fabian Leendertz
© HIOH/Johanna Eberhard
Portrait of Prof Dr Fabian Leendertz.
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Fabian Leendertz on the current reporting on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus

Statement by the Director of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health

Regarding the current reporting on the origin of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, Prof. Fabian Leendertz, Director of the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH), makes the following statement: “Based on the data published to date, it can be assumed that the transmission to humans took place via intermediate hosts (e.g. animal farms), as the contacts and risks are much higher there. This data has been published in various WHO reports and relevant peer-reviewed scientific publications. If there is now other and new data that supports an origin in the laboratory, then that is a different picture. We now have to wait until this data has been examined and reviewed by experts.”

In 2021, Fabian Leendertz was part of a group of scientists appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to review the data available at the time and recommend further investigations into the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The HIOH is a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig in cooperation with the University of Greifswald, the University Medical Center Greifswald and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.
 

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