(CNN Español) – The true origin of the coronavirus is one of the questions scientists are looking for an answer to. A team from the World Health Organization, WHO, has conducted a series of tests in China. In this episode, Dr. Elmer Huerta about the results of this research.
You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, or read the transcript below.
Hi, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your daily dose of information about the new coronavirus. Information that we hope will be helpful in caring for your health and that of your family.
Today we will see what has been learned about the origins of the pandemic in China.
The origins of the coronavirus pandemic: the big question
One of the great mysteries of the pandemic is the origin of the virus, and one consequence of that uncertainty is the emergence of multiple theories trying to explain it. Theories vary from those based on science and evidence, to those that simply express the wishes and fantasies of groups of people.
On February 9, the results were released of a visit of almost four weeks by an international team consisting of 17 scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) and 20 Chinese scientists.
Zoologist Peter Daszak, a member of the delegation, told CNN that many labs have been visited and that really tough questions were asked of individual Chinese directors and scientists, clarifying that the data and transcripts of the interviews will be released in an upcoming WHO report.
He also praised China’s “remarkable openness”.
Dr. Daszak clarified that, despite gathering abundant data on the possible origin of the pandemic, it will take months or years to know the truth about the virus’s origins, adding that there is no evidence that there is covid outbreaks have occurred. -19 earlier than those shown in early December, and that the virus may have been brought by someone from another country.
What the WHO says about the origins of the pandemic
Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, head of the international delegation, said the findings suggest that the theory that the pathogen came from a Wuhan laboratory is “extremely unlikely,” a popular theory championed by former US President Donald Trump. discredited.
The committee confirmed that the hypothesis of the passage of the coronavirus from one animal to man via a second species is the “most likely”, but that a definitive answer is far from being found. Dr. Embarek stated that the first animal was likely a bat, and there remains doubt as to which animal could have been the second animal.
Similarly, it was reported that it was not yet possible to identify the «null patient», that is, the first patient with covid-19 from the pandemic, and that it is possible that this could never be identified as it may be that this person was asymptomatic.
Despite the collaboration, it was noticeable that during the approximately three-hour press conference, both Chinese and international delegations had separate presentations.
Could the virus come from another place?
In this regard, the Chinese delegation stressed that the virus could have reached China via frozen merchandise from another country.
In another major revelation, Dr. Embarek that it was not clear that the pandemic originated in the Wuhan fish market, as there were other concurrent sources of contamination in the city.
Finally, it was revealed that there is no evidence that covid-19 cases occurred before December 2019.
In summary, a nearly four-week project, with visits to various places in China over 12 days, which took more than a year to crystallize, leading to bitter political disagreements, no longer sheds light on the mysteries of the origins of the pandemic has claimed the lives of more than two million people. We will no doubt have to wait if the final report gives us any other kind of additional data.
Do you have any questions about the corona virus?
Send me your questions on Twitter, we’ll try to answer them in our next installments. You can find me inside @DrHuerta. You can see we answer them.
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