Chinese lead in the WHO team asserts the virus was circulating earlier in “other regions”
Wuhan: The World Health Organisation’s joint expert team of 34 scientists including 17 from China, who were on a four-week mission to Wuhan, the city where the new coronavirus first emerged in December 2019, said it was ‘extremely unlikely’ that the virus came out from a laboratory.
Addressing a press conference here at the conclusion of their mission for the global study of the origins of SARS-CoV-2, Dr. Peter Ben Embarek from the WHO told reporters on February 9, 2021: “…the findings suggest that the laboratory incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain introduction of the virus into the human population, and therefore is not a hypothesis that implies to suggest future studies into our work, to support our future work, into the understanding of the origin of the virus.”
According to Dr. Embarek, the initial findings suggested that the introduction through an intermediary host species was the most likely pathway and one that would require more studies and more specific targeted research.
Listen to the deliberations at the press conference here.
The joint expert team was looking at three areas: epidemiology, molecular research and animal and environment. It visited the Huanan Market where the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected, hospitals and other sites in the city.
Upholding the earlier Chinese standpoint, the expert team’s Chinese lead Dr. Liang Wannian, claimed that their review of unpublished studies did suggest that the virus was circulating earlier in other regions. According to him the research found “no indication” of virus transmission in Wuhan in the period before December 2019.
“These studies from different countries suggest SARS-CoV-2 circulation preceding the initial detection of cases by several weeks”, Dr. Wannian said, and added: “Some of the suspected positive samples were detected even earlier than the first case reported. This indicates the possibility of the missed reported circulation in other regions.”
He further asserted that the investigations conducted in Wuhan will now lay the groundwork for virus origin tracing elsewhere.
While ongoing research continues to suggest that bats are a natural reservoir for the new coronavirus, Dr. Embarek ruled out the possibility in Wuhan, as the city is not near to any environments where these animals are found. Working on the hypothesis that the virus could have come through the food chain, as frozen products can provide a surface for transmission, he referred to frozen animal products, mainly seafood, which were sold at Huanan Market, along with products made from wild and farmed animals. Some of these products came from other parts of China or were imported.
“So, there is the potential to continue to follow this lead and further look at the supply chain and animals that were supplied to the markets in frozen and other processed and semi-processed form, or raw form,” he said.
– global bihari bureau
