WUHAN, China (AP) – A team from the World Health Organization investigating the origin of the coronavirus pandemic visited the food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Sunday, which is associated with very early infections.
The team members visited the Huanan Seafood Market for about an hour in the afternoon, and one of them flashed an inch up when reporters asked how the trip was going.
The market was the place where a virus broke out in December 2019. Scientists initially suspected that the virus came from wild animals sold in the market. The market has since been largely ruled out, but it could give hints as to how the virus has spread so widely.
“Very important site visits today – first a wholesale market and Huanan Seafood Market,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist at the American group EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WTO team, said in a tweet. “Very informative and critical for our joint teams to understand the epidemiology of COVID as it began to spread in late 2019.”
Earlier in the day, team members were also seen walking through parts of the Baishazhou Market – one of the largest wet markets in Wuhan – surrounded by a large crowd of Chinese officials and representatives. The market was the food distribution center for Wuhan last year during the 76-day closure of the city.
The members, with expertise in veterinary medicine, virology, food safety and epidemiology, have so far visited two hospitals in the midst of the early outbreak – Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital.
On Saturday, they also visited a museum exhibit dedicated to the early history of COVID-19.
The mission has been politically charged, as China wants to avoid blaming alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.
It is likely that a single visit by scientists will confirm the origin of the virus. Capturing the animal reservoir of an outbreak is usually a comprehensive endeavor that requires years of research, including taking animal samples, genetic analysis, and epidemiological studies.
One possibility is that a poacher would have transmitted the virus to traders who transported it to Wuhan. The Chinese government has advanced with little evidence theories that the outbreak may have started with the importation of frozen seafood contaminated with the virus, an idea that has been completely rejected by international scientists and agencies.
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Soo reported from Hong Kong.