Javier Garcia
01/27/2021 1:55 PM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 01/27/2021 1:55 PM
An international team of 13 experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) begins
its mission on the ground
in
Wuhan
this Thursday
to investigate the origin of the coronavirus at the end of the mandatory 14-day quarantine they spend in a hotel in the city.
A
complicated mission -
punctuated by delays and clashes between China and the United States - but one that may be key to independently investigating how the first known cases of the virus that continues to plague humanity originated.
Wuhan was the first place in the world where the pathogen was identified at the end of 2019 and here international scientists will follow the track of the first infections, supposedly related to the Huanan fish and seafood market, where
wild animals
were also sold
.
All hypotheses
"All hypotheses are on the table and it is too early to come to a conclusion about where exactly the virus started, whether it was inside or outside of China," said the WHO director of health emergencies, Mike Ryan last Friday.
The international research team deployed to Wuhan, made up of members of the WHO and other international scientists, includes experts from the US, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Vietnam and Qatar.
It is headed by Danish Peter Ben Embarek, the Geneva-based organization's leading expert on animal transmitted diseases.
It also includes other renowned specialists, such as the Dutch virologist Mariom Koopmans, the
German
microbiologist and veterinarian
Fabian Leendertz or the
British
zoologist
Peter Daszak, who investigated
bat
coronaviruses
in China years ago.
Daszak said in a Twitter message on Wednesday from the quarantine hotel in Wuhan that in the first moments, after detecting the outbreak in the city in late December, Chinese experts were "intensely focused on managing the chaos" of diseases. and deaths, which he considered "normal" in a response to an epidemic.
"I spoke with many colleagues from China at the time. They were all working frantically on the outbreak. I'm not saying they didn't want help, but wildlife research
was not a priority
amid the rapid evolution" of the epidemic, he said in another message.
The international experts will visit the Huanan market, still closed, with Chinese scientists.
Photo: AP
The zoologist stressed that they are working so that, in future epidemics, scientists can be on the ground as soon as an outbreak occurs to better understand its origins and causes.
The international experts will visit with Chinese scientists the Huanan market,
still closed
for more than a year, and other key places in the city such as the
Wuhan Institute of Virology
and its P4 maximum security laboratory.
Political disputes
Donald Trump's administration has insisted for months, and even days before the end of his term, that the virus had come out of that laboratory in the capital of Hubei.
On January 17, the State Department claimed to have "new evidence" that
it originated there
by stating that laboratory researchers
had fallen ill
in the fall of 2019, although it did not provide any evidence to prove it.
Wuhan Institute of Virology and its P4 Maximum Security Laboratory.
Photo: EFE
China, for its part, described Washington's statements as "lies and conspiracy theories" and through the official press has repeatedly highlighted that the virus was already detected in the fall of 2019 in several countries, far from the Asian giant. .
Some Chinese scientists have also hinted at the possibility that it could have reached China through
frozen products imported
from other countries, where it has detected traces of the virus frequently for a long time.
"The official position of the Chinese government is that tracing the origin is a very serious scientific matter. We must rely on scientists and medical experts to come to a conclusion based on science and fact," the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said recently. , Hua Chunying.
The head of the WHO mission said his team will
investigate the hypothesis
that the virus had escaped from a laboratory, "even if it is unlikely."
"There is no evidence as of yet that indicates that anyone was working with the virus in the past; there is no evidence that it could have somehow escaped from the laboratory, but of course
we will take that into account
when looking for the origin of this virus, "Ben Embarek said in a video released by the WHO this month.
The vast majority of the international scientific community agrees that the virus most likely reached humans
from nature
, not from a laboratory.
The pangolin, associated with the coronavirus, coveted and in danger of extinction.
Photo: archive
The mission also plans to examine
hospital records
in Wuhan or collected sewage samples and blood donations, as well as visit wild animal farms and interview the first patients, which were detected between 9 and 12 of December, according to Chinese authorities.
China has not detailed
what it will show
to international experts, who before traveling recognized that they did not yet have a clear picture of the progress in the Asian country's investigation.
"Sitting at a table together all makes sense," said Leendertz, a microbiologist who in 2014 identified the bat-infested tree in West Africa from which
the Ebola virus
epidemic likely originated
.
The horseshoe bat, the main suspect
Much of the scientific community places the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in horseshoe bats, which inhabit many parts of the world and are numerous in Asia.
The genetic material of the coronavirus that caused the pandemic is 96.22% equal to that of the
RaTG13 coronavirus
, isolated in a horseshoe bat in the south of the Asian country by Chinese scientists.
Bats, such a common species in China.
From the bat, some believe that the virus could be transmitted to humans directly and others think that it did so through
a third animal
, such as the pangolin or the snake.
There are also those who consider that the virus could have been adapting to humans for a long time until it reached
its high transmission capacity
and current contagion.
The zero patient
The WHO team will first have to identify
patient zero
and then
pull the thread
to see which of these hypotheses is correct, although more missions and several months will probably be needed.
The WHO also studies the information that points to the appearance of the virus in other places before it did so in China, although this does not invalidate that they begin their mission in Wuhan.
"This is
a big
10,000-piece
puzzle
and you can't complete the picture by looking at just one," summarized the WHO director of health emergencies.
The author is a journalist for EFE
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