By David Kirton and David Stanway
WUHAN, China (Reuters) – A member of the World Health Organization-led team looking for clues to the emergence of COVID-19 in the city of Wuhan in the central Chinese region, said work was needed to remove genetic elements from the detect virus in bat cavity. .
Peter Daszak, a zoologist and expert on animal diseases, said the team in Wuhan had received new information on how the virus, which was only identified in the city in late 2019, led to a pandemic. He did not elaborate, but said there was no evidence to suggest it came from a laboratory.
The origin of the coronavirus was strongly politicized after accusations, particularly by the United States, that China was not transparent in the early handling of the outbreak. Beijing has spurred the idea that the virus originated elsewhere.
Daszak was involved in research into the origins of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003, and traced its roots to bats that live in a cave in southwestern Yunnan province.
“Similar research needs to be done if we are to find the true natural origin” of COVID-19, said Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance in New York.
“The kind of work to find the likely bat source is important, because if you can find the sources of these deadly viruses, you can reduce contact with the animals,” he told Reuters in an interview.
It is unclear whether China is currently sampling its many bat cavities, but viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 have previously been found in the southwestern province of Yunnan.
He said the team in Wuhan received new information on how the virus led to a pandemic, but did not expand.
“I see a picture of some of the scenarios that seem more plausible than before,” he said.
One scenario that the team studied more closely is the possibility that the virus could have circulated long before it was first identified in Wuhan.
“This is something that our group is looking at very intensely to see what level of community transfer could have taken place in the past,” Daszak said.
“The real job we’re doing here is to trace back from the first cases back to an animal reservoir, and that’s a much more complicated road and could have happened in a number of months or even years.”
The investigators visited hospitals, research facilities and the seafood market where the first outbreak was identified, although their contact in Wuhan was limited to visits arranged by their Chinese hosts.
Daszak said the Chinese authorities refused any requests from the team to visit facilities or meet with key figures.
“It’s obviously impossible to know what you’re not telling, but what I see in China and what this group sees in China is that we may do,” Daszak said.
(Reporting by David Stanway in Shanghai and David Kirton in Wuhan; Edited by Nick Macfie)