The World Health Organization’s top emergency expert pushed back against Chinese Communist Party claims that COVID-19 originated in Europe, calling the theory “highly speculative.”

The official, Mike Ryan, noted “it’s highly speculative for us to say that the disease did not emerge in China,” during a virtual briefing in Geneva. The remarks came in response to a question about whether or not COVID-19 could have emerged somewhere besides China.

“It is clear from a public health perspective that you start your investigations where the human cases first emerged,” he added.

The World Health Organization official’s words represent a rejection of the Chinese Communist Party-peddled narrative that COVID-19 existed abroad before it was discovered in China.