In January 2020, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would donate $10 million to contain the spread of the coronavirus in China and Africa.
An unclassified U.S. intelligence report summarized for the public on Aug. 27 makes clear that the first cases of COVID-19 were at least as early as Nov. 19, 2019, and that the first cluster of cases occurred at least by December 2019 in Wuhan.
The World Health Organization says it is actively pursuing evidence in support of a possible “lab-leak” origin of the SARS-Cov-2 virus, a notable contrast from an investigatory team’s earlier confidence that the theory was highly unlikely.