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Wuhan: WHO experts visiting Wuhan on Tuesday suggested that the emerging corona virus was transmitted to humans through an intermediate animal, at the end of their mission in the Chinese city where the epidemic was first discovered.
More than a year after discovering the first cases of Covid-19 in this city of 11 million people, experts have brushed aside the hypothesis of the virus leaking from the laboratory, without ruling out the possibility of infection transmission via frozen products – a hypothesis favored by Beijing.
The head of the World Health Organization mission, Peter Ben Embark, said in a press conference that the most likely theory to explain the origin of the epidemic is the transmission of the virus to humans through an “intermediary” animal.
The animal “has not yet been identified,” said Liang Wanyan, head of the Chinese scientific team. Peter Ben Embark said that the hypothesis of a laboratory leak, raised by the administration of former US President Donald Trump, is “highly unlikely.”
Washington has accused the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is conducting research on very dangerous pathogens, that it has allowed the Corona virus to leak from it, either intentionally or accidentally.
In contrast to statements issued in the past by the World Health Organization, Ben Embarek referred to the “possibility of” transmission of the Corona virus “through the trade of frozen products.
“It will be important to study whether an infected frozen wild animal could be a possible vector” of the virus, he said.
“unknown”
In recent months, China reported the discovery of many “positive” samples contaminated with the Coronavirus in food products imported from abroad.
The hypothesis of transmission through the cold chain is mentioned frequently in Chinese media, because it tends to support the hypothesis that the virus is a disease to China from abroad.
As for Huanan Market in Wuhan, where the first known cases of Covid were recorded, its role in the spread of the virus “is still unknown”, according to Ben Embark. In the market were the usual fresh produce as well as live wildlife.
Marion Copmans, who is part of the WHO expert delegation, indicated that the presence of rabbits, rodents and bamboo rats in the market makes scientists suspect these animals as potential carriers of the virus.
The first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Wuhan in December 2019. Ben Embark said that no evidence of patients had been found in the city before this date.
Great importance has been attached to the task of experts in trying to find the origin of the virus and the source of its transmission to humans to better combat any potential epidemic in the future.
However, the team faced problems in its formation after China appeared reluctant to allow the visit of these international experts from various disciplines such as epidemiology as well as zoology to be arranged.
Pitfalls –
The Chinese authorities have been working for months to raise doubts about where the virus began infecting humans.
The final indication of the sensitivity of the issue to her is the press conference announced by the World Health Organization at 4 pm (08:00 GMT), before the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided the date for the session by half an hour, to finally start shortly before 5:30 in the afternoon.
Thus, until the last moment, a shadow of uncertainty hung over the task of the international experts.
At the beginning of January, WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed “disappointment” when the mission’s departure was delayed for a week while some experts had already boarded the plane.
When they finally arrived in Wuhan on January 14, the experts were to remain in quarantine for two weeks, which is a standard procedure for any traveler coming from abroad.
As a crowd of Chinese and international journalists tracked them everywhere, the experts were finally able to post small blogs on Twitter and give interviews by phone.
On Friday, one of them, Peter Dashak, the animal scientist who heads the EcoHealth NGO in the United States, said that the team had access to all the places it wanted to visit, especially the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Huanan Market.
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