During talks about the origin tracing of COVID-19, Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Health Emergencies Program, cited the study on the origins of the Ebola outbreak. "It took us years and years to even begin to understand the origin of Ebola," he said on February 9, 2020, after an international expert team wrapped up its investigation in Wuhan, where the first COVID-19 cases in China were reported. Even to this day, many unknowns on how the Ebola outbreak started persisted, he added.