BEIJING (AP) – After a two-week quarantine, the real work can begin. Perhaps.
A team of researchers from the World Health Organization left their hotel on Thursday for the first time since their arrival in the city of Wuhan, in central China, to start looking for clues about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The visit was shrouded in secrecy: the details of his itinerary were not disclosed and it is not known how much access to China will give researchers to the places they wish to visit and the people they wish to talk to.
WHY IS THE TEAM IN CHINA?
Scientists hope that information about the first known cases of the new coronavirus – which was first identified in Wuhan – will help them better understand where it came from and prevent similar pandemics in the future.
Researchers from around the world are eager to access samples taken from the Huanan Seafood Market, which had an early outbreak, and the Wuhan hospital records.
The team can visit the market itself, as well as the locations of other initial cases.
He could also go to a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was built after the 2003 SARS pandemic and maintains an extensive archive of bat coronavirus genetic sequences. U.S. officials in the previous Trump administration suggested, without offering evidence, that the virus could have escaped the institute.
Experts say the new coronavirus is unlikely to have emerged from the laboratory in Wuhan and say that analysis of the new coronavirus genome rules out the possibility that was designed by humans.
Researchers can also visit hospitals that were overwhelmed at the height of the pandemic in China and the local branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The seafood market and other places where the first cases emerged remain important because the virus is constantly changing, as shown by the new strain found in the United Kingdom.
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WHAT DO RESEARCHERS EXPECT TO LEARN?
Wuhan is where the cases of COVID-19 were first detected, but it is highly possible that the virus has reached the industrial city of 11 million people elsewhere.
Genetic sequencing shows that the coronavirus started in bats and probably jumped to another animal before infecting humans. The virus that is the most well-known relative of the one that causes COVID-19 was found in bats in a mine shaft some 1,600 kilometers southwest of Wuhan, near the Chinese border with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. The Associated Press was prevented from visiting the mine.
People started getting sick in Wuhan in December 2019, and many had links to the seafood market. Scientists initially suspected that the virus came from wild animals sold on the market, which led China to crack down on the wildlife trade.
But the subsequent discovery of previous cases challenged this theory. China’s CDC said samples taken from the market indicate that it was probably a place where the virus spread, not where it started. The ability of the WHO team to deepen our understanding of the virus – and its credibility – may depend in part on access to these samples.
Studying the genes of the first known cases in Wuhan may provide clues as to how he passed from bats to people and whether it was through a mammal like a bamboo rat or a civet.
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WHAT OBSTACLES DOES THE TEAM FACE?
The big question is what China will allow researchers to see and do. The ruling Communist Party is concerned that the research will shed light on the management of the virus, which could open it up to international criticism – and even demands for financial compensation, if it is considered negligent.
China suppressed independent reports about the outbreak at home and published little information about its research on the origins of the virus. An AP investigation found that the government strictly controlled all research related to COVID-19 and prohibits researchers from speaking to the media.
Another AP investigation found WHO officials complained in particular that China was slow to share critical information about the outbreak, including the genetic sequence of the new virus, even when the UN health agency publicly praised China for what it called a rapid response.
China, hit by complaints that it allowed the disease to spread, suggested that the virus could have come from abroad. A government spokesman said hunting for origins will require work beyond China’s borders, including in bat habitats in neighboring Southeast Asia. An expert on the WHO team suggested the same thing, and this is a possibility that researchers are exploring.
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WHEN WILL WE KNOW THE ANSWERS?
The search for the origins of COVID-19 is likely to take years. It took more than a decade to discover the origins of SARS, and the origins of Ebola, first identified in the 1970s, remain elusive. But knowing where the virus came from can help prevent future virus outbreaks in wild animals.