A team led by the World Health Organization looking for clues to the origin of COVID-19 warned that their mission to the Chinese city of Wuhan is unlikely to provide all the answers.
“We will not get the ultimate full understanding of the origin of this virus, but it will be a good first step,” said Peter Ben Embarek, WHO’s top expert on zoonotic diseases affecting animals. Agence Frace Press reported.
Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, also tried to dampen expectations of the long-awaited visit to the pandemic’s original epicenter.
“I keep saying we need to be realistic, a short mission like this won’t have all the answers, but it helps increase understanding of the #virusorigin #wuhan,” he wrote in a tweet.
But Peter Daszak, a zoologist and animal disease expert, insisted the team has made progress since arriving in China.
“I see a picture coming through of some scenarios that look more plausible than before,” said Daszak.
One possibility being looked at by the group is whether the virus could have spread elsewhere long before it was first identified in Wuhan.
“That’s something our group is looking at very intensely to see what level of community transfer could have happened earlier,” said Daszak.
“The real work we’re doing here is going back to an animal reservoir from the first cases, and that’s a much more complicated path, and could have happened in a few months or even years.”
The team has been on their trip to hospitals, fish markets and research facilities – including a Wednesday visit to Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab centered on unfounded speculation that it was the source of the pandemic.
“Extremely important meeting today with WIV staff, including Dr. Shi Zhengli. Frank, open discussion. Asked and answered important questions. Daszak tweeted.
Daszak later told Reuters there was no evidence that COVID-19 came from a lab.
However, the researchers have so far only visited visits organized by their Chinese hosts.
“Obviously, it’s impossible to know what you’re not being told, but what I see in China, and what this group sees in China, is what we’ve asked, we can do,” said Daszak.
With Post Wires