The virus that causes COVID-19 probably jumped from animals to humans and is “extremely unlikely” to have come from a laboratory, the head of China-WHO Expert Team investigating the origins of the disease said on Tuesday
China-WHO Expert Team Rejects Hypothesis of Laboratory Developed Coronavirus
New Delhi (ABC Live India):The virus that causes COVID-19
probably jumped from animals to humans and is “extremely unlikely” to have come
from a laboratory, the head of an international team investigating the origins
of the disease said on Tuesday.
Dr. Peter Ben Embarek
from the World Health Organization (WHO) was speaking during a press conference in Wuhan, China,
at the end of a four-week mission to the city where the new Coronavirus first
emerged in December 2019.
“Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one that will require more studies and more specific targeted research”, he said.
Joint expert team
The international team convened by WHO
consisted of 17 Chinese experts and an equal number of counterparts from other
nations, looking at three areas: epidemiology, molecular research and animal
and environment.
They visited hospitals and other sites in
Wuhan, including the Huanan Market where the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first
detected, and identified four main hypotheses of how it could have been
transmitted to humans.
“However, 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”, Dr. Embarek said.
Frozen food link?
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.
One hypothesis suggests the virus could have
come through the food chain, as frozen products can provide a surface for
transmission.
Dr. Embarek said frozen animal products,
mainly seafood, were sold at Huanan Market, along with products made from wild
and farmed animals, some of which 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.
Virus
circulating elsewhere earlier
It has been nearly a year since the COVID-19 pandemic was
declared and as of Tuesday, there were more than 106 million cases worldwide,
including some 2.3 million deaths.
The investigations conducted in Wuhan will
lay the groundwork for virus origin tracing elsewhere, according to the team’s
Chinese lead, Dr. Liang Wannian.
He said their review of unpublished studies
suggests the virus was circulating earlier in other regions.
“These studies from different countries
suggests SARS-CoV-2 circulation preceding the initial detection of cases by
several weeks”, said Dr. Liang, speaking through an interpreter.
“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.”
Dr. Liang added that research also found “no
indication” of virus transmission in Wuhan in the period before December
2019.