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On the tracks of patient zero, a market and a mysterious laboratory: WHO experts search Wuhan for the origin of the coronavirus

2021-01-27T20:58:31.555Z


They will follow the traces of the first infections. And all the hypotheses are on the table.


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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Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-01-27

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