WHO team arrives found in Wuhan to find pandemic origins
14 January, 2021
A worldwide team of researchers arrived Thursday in the Chinese metropolis where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected to carry out a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might make an effort to prevent embarrassing discoveries.
The 10-member team delivered to Wuhan by the World Health Corporation was approved by President Xi Jinping's government after months of diplomatic wrangling that prompted a unique public complaint by the top of the WHO. They arrived Thursday, state mass media CGTN reported on Thursday.
Scientists suspect the virus which has killed 1.9 million persons since later 2019 jumped to humans from bats or other animals, probably in China's southwest. The ruling Communist Party, stung by complaints it allowed the disease to distributed, says the virus came from abroad, perhaps on imported seafood, but scientists reject that.
The WHO team includes virus and other professionals from america, Australia, Germany, Japan, Britain, Russia, the Netherlands, Qatar and Vietnam.
A good government spokesman said this week they'll “exchange views” with Chinese scientists but gave no indication if they would be allowed to gather evidence.
They'll undergo a two-week quarantine as well as a throat swab test and an antibody test for COVID-19, according to a post on CGTN’s official Weibo account. They are to start working with Chinese experts via video meeting while in quarantine.
China rejected requirements for an international investigation after the Trump administration blamed Beijing for the virus's spread, which plunged the global overall economy into its deepest slump because the 1930s.
After Australia called in April for an unbiased inquiry, Beijing retaliated by blocking imports of Australian beef, wine and other goods.
One possibility is that a wildlife poacher might have passed the virus to dealers who carried it to Wuhan, among the WHO team members, zoologist Peter Daszak of the U.S. group EcoHealth Alliance, informed the Associated Press in November.
An individual visit by researchers is unlikely to verify the virus's origins; pinning down an outbreak's animal reservoir is normally an exhaustive endeavor that needs years of study including taking creature samples, genetic research and epidemiological studies.
“The government should be very transparent and collaborative," said Shin-Ru Shih, director at the Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections at Taiwan's Chang Gung University.
The Chinese government has tried to stir confusion about the virus's origin. It has got promoted theories, with little facts, that the outbreak may have began with imports of tainted seafood, a notion rejected by international researchers and agencies.
"The WHO will have to conduct very similar investigations in other places,” an official of the National Overall health Commission, Mi Feng, said Wednesday.
A few of the WHO workforce were on the way to China yesterday but had to carefully turn backside after Beijing announced they hadn't received valid visas.
That might have already been a “bureaucratic bungle,” however the incident "raises the question if the Chinese authorities were trying to interfere,” said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a health professional at the University of Sydney.
A possible target for investigators is the Wuhan Institute of Virology in metropolis where in fact the outbreak began. Among China's top virus exploration labs, it made an archive of genetic details about bat coronaviruses following the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
According to WHO's released agenda because of its origins study, there are zero plans to assess whether there might have already been an accidental relieve of the coronavirus by the Wuhan lab, when some American politicians, incorporating President Donald Trump, have claimed.
A good “scientific audit” of Institute records and safety measures will be a “regime activity,” said Tag Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh. He explained that is determined by how willing Chinese authorities will be to share information.
“There’s a big element of trust below,” Woolhouse said.
An AP investigation found the government imposed controls in research in to the outbreak and bars scientists from speaking to reporters.
The coronavirus's precise origin may under no circumstances be traced because viruses change quickly, said Woolhouse.
Although it may be challenging to find precisely the same COVID-19 virus in animals as in humans, discovering closely related viruses will help explain how the disease primary jumped from animals and clarify what preventive measures are needed to avoid future epidemics.
Scientists should target instead on making a “comprehensive photo” of the virus to greatly help respond to future outbreaks, Woolhouse said.
“Now is not the time at fault anyone," Shih said. “We shouldn’t state, it’s your fault.”
Source: japantoday.com
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