'Diminishing returns' Beijing has especially bridled at the suggestion that the virus might have escaped from the Wuhan virology lab.
On Tuesday US intelligence agencies presented President Joe Biden with a report looking at both the animal transmission and "lab-leak" hypotheses.
The findings were described as inconclusive. In its comment, the WHO team notes that current data does not support the lab-leak scenario.
None of six priorities for further research alluded to this possibility. Rather, the scientists emphasised the need to trace the earliest cases of Covid through disease reporting and antibody surveys, inside and outside China.