What is the real origin of the COVID-19 virus?

What Is the Real Origin of the COVID-19 Virus? | GZERO Media

A controversial new World Health Organization report on the origins of the coronavirus that suggests it likely originated from a bat but transferred to humans via an intermediary animal. Could the virus have emerged from a Chinese lab, as former CDC Director Robert Redfield recently suggested? That's the least likely scenario, says the WHO's chief scientist, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan. "The betacoronaviruses are very, very common in bats and there's a lot of genetic similarity between the SARS-CoV2 and many of the viruses in the...bat species," Dr. Swaminathan told Ian Bremmer in an interview on GZERO World, airing on US public television stations starting April 9. Check local listings.

Watch the episode: Vaccine nationalism could prolong the pandemic

More from GZERO Media

Endorsed by steelworkers onstage, then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump puts on a hard hat during his Make America Great Again Rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 19, 2024.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday imposing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to the US. This raises the tariff rate on aluminum to 25% from the previous 10% that Trump imposed in 2018, and it reinstates a 25% tariff on “millions of tons” of steel and aluminum imports previously exempted or excluded.

- YouTube

“France has a special message in AI,” says Justin Vaïsse, director general of the Paris Peace Forum. Speaking to GZERO’s Tony Maciulis at the 2025 AI Action Summit in Paris, Vaïsse highlighted France’s diplomatic and technological role in shaping global AI governance.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue eats an ear of corn at the Brabant Farms in Verona, New York, U.S., August 23, 2018. Picture taken August 23, 2018.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

On Donald Trump’s first day in office, he ordered the Agriculture Department to freeze funds for agricultural programs established under the clean-energy portion of Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

President Donald Trump before the Super Bowl.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

In the game “Two Truths and a Lie,” a player discloses three statements, each of which seems both plausible and unexpected. Over his first month in office, President Donald Trump has presented a range of policy prospects as possible. He has also undertaken a wide number of presidential actions. Together, these measures have shifted the global context, leaving partners and rivals to orient to a vastly changing reality and wonder how seriously they should take him.

- YouTube

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Trump envisions Gaza as a Mediterranean paradise, but what does this mean for the region, and how has it been received? In this Quick Take, Ian Bremmer breaks down the latest developments.

U.S. President Donald Trump talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah at the White House in 2018. On Tuesday, King Abdullah will return to Washington, becoming the first Arab leader to meet with Trump since he returned to the US Presidency.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Donald Trump insists that he will force Palestinians out of the wrecked Gaza Strip and resettle them in neighboring Arab countries, including Jordan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a visit to the Lomonosov Moscow State University, in Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 24, 2025.

Sputnik/Ramil Sitdikov/Pool via REUTERS

What future does Vladimir Putin imagine for Russia? That’s been a crucial question for those in Europe and the United States who want to know what he might want in exchange for peace with Ukraine. A leaked Russian government report offers a few possible answers.

A woman votes during the parliamentary elections, in Pristina, Kosovo, February 9, 2025. R
REUTERS/Florion Goga

The Republic of Kosovo held parliamentary elections on Sunday, and with 88% of the votes counted, Prime Minister Albin Kurti's party, Vetëvendosje (Self-Determination Movement), is ahead with 41% of the vote – a drop from the 50% Kurti got in 2021. This means he will likely need to form a coalition to stay in power.