A team led by the World Health Organization seeking clues to the origins of COVID-19 has warned that their mission to the Chinese city of Wuhan is unlikely to provide all the answers.
“We are not going to get the full understanding of the origin of this virus, but it will be a good first step,” said Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO’s top expert on zoonotic diseases in animals. Agence Frace Press reported.
Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program of the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, also tried to temper the expectations of the long-awaited visit to the original epicenter of the pandemic.
“I still say we need to be realistic, a short mission like this will not have all the answers, but it will help advance the understanding of the #virusorigin #wuhan,” he said. wrote in a tweet.
But Peter Daszak, a zoologist and animal disease expert, maintains that the team has made progress since arriving in China.
“I see a picture of some of the scenarios that seem more plausible than before,” Daszak said.
One possibility the group is thoroughly investigating is whether the virus could have spread elsewhere long before it was 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 some of the first cases back to an animal reservoir, and it’s a much more complicated road and could have happened in a number of months or even years.
The team was in hospitals, seafood markets and research facilities during their trip – and on Wednesday visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the laboratory amid unfounded speculation that it was the source of the pandemic.
An extremely important meeting today with staff at WIV, including Dr Shi Zhengli. Frank, open discussion. Key questions asked and answered. “, Daszak tweeted.
Daszak later told Reuters that there was no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory.
However, the investigators so far have only been visits arranged by their Chinese hosts.
“It’s obviously impossible to know what you’re not being told, but what I see in China and what this group sees in China is that we may do,” Daszak said.
With Post Wires