A team led by the World Health Organization looking for clues to the origins of COVID-19 has warned that their mission in the Chinese city of Wuhan is unlikely to provide all the answers.
“We will not come up with a complete understanding of the origins of this virus, but it will be a good first step,” said Peter Ben Embarek, the WHO’s leading expert on animal-borne zoonotic diseases, Frace Press reported.
Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health Program at the International Animal Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, also tried to dampen expectations from the long-awaited visit to the original epicenter of the pandemic.
“I keep saying we have to be realistic, a short mission like this won’t have all the answers, but it helps to understand #virusorigin #wuhan,” he said. 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 of scenarios that seem more plausible than before,” Daszak said.
One possibility that is being closely examined by the group is whether the virus could have spread elsewhere long before it was first identified in Wuhan.
“Our group is looking at this very intensely to see what level of community transmission could have happened earlier,” Daszak said.
“The real work we do here is to go back to an animal tank from the first cases, and this is a much more complicated way and it could have happened over several months or even years.”
The team visited hospitals, seafood markets and research facilities during their trip – including a visit on Wednesday to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the laboratory in the center of unfounded speculation that it was the source of the pandemic.
“An extremely important meeting today with WIV staff, including Dr. Shi Zhengli. Frank, open discussion. Key questions asked and answered. “, Daszak posted on Twitter.
Daszak later told Reuters that there was no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 came out of a laboratory.
However, investigators have so far only been on visits by their Chinese hosts.
“Of course, 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 that what we asked for, we are allowed to do,” Daszak said.
With Post Wires