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Since the appearance of the new Corona virus in late December 2019, and to this day, the series of surprises coming from Wuhan continues to come to light, especially after the World Health Organization team arrived at the scene. birth of the epidemic and research. It was opened.
In new research by researchers investigating the origins of the epidemic in China, they discovered signs indicating that the virus outbreak was much wider in Wuhan at the time than previously thought, causing them to race against time to access hundreds of thousands of blood samples from the city that China has not yet allowed them to analyze.
In a lengthy interview with CNN, the World Health Organization mission principal investigator Peter Ben Embarek explained in a lengthy interview with CNN that the mission found several signs of a wider spread in 2019, including the first origin. where there were more than 12 strains of the virus already in Wuhan. In December, the team confirmed after an opportunity to speak with the first patient that Chinese authorities said had carried the infection, an office worker in his 40s and who had no significant travel history, on December 8. .
Spread before the known date
This information is extremely important, because according to the team, the slow emergence of more detailed data collected on the WHO trip to China may heighten concerns expressed by other scientists studying the origins of the disease that it may spread in China much earlier. of its first appearance. official appearance in mid-December.
Plainclothes security personnel outside the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention ahead of the WHO team’s arrival on February 1.
Ambarick noted that the virus was spreading widely in Wuhan in December, which is a new discovery, adding that Chinese scientists provided the team with 174 coronavirus cases in and around Wuhan in December 2019. This means that the disease may infect an estimated number. More than 1,000 people in the city that month.
Valuable clues
He also explained that the team expanded the type of genetic material for the virus they examined from the first cases of Coronavirus infection, explaining that this allowed them to look at partial genetic samples, rather than just complete samples, and from them they were able to of collecting 13 different genetic sequences from the Corona virus for the first time, as of December 2019.
Plainclothes security personnel outside the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention ahead of the WHO team’s arrival on February 1.
The sequences, if examined with broader data from patients in China throughout 2019, could provide valuable clues about the geography and timing of the outbreak prior to this period, which can be found at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. , which is believed to have played an important role. role in the first spread of the virus and also in other places.
13 dynasties before December 2019!
Ambarek declined to draw conclusions about what the 13 strains could mean for the history of the disease before December, but the discovery of many different possible variants of the virus may indicate that it has been spreading for a period longer than that single month. , as some virologists previously suggested. This genetic material is likely the first physical evidence to appear internationally to support such a theory, as changes in the genetic makeup of the virus are common and generally harmless, occurring over time as the disease spreads and multiplies. between humans or animals. .
From the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention
He also noted that there are around 200,000 samples available there, which are now insured and can be used for a new group of studies, noting that some other biological test samples that may have proved useful during the Wuhan mission were not available to them. . or, and noted that many samples were discarded, after a few months or weeks, depending on the purpose for which they are being taken.
It is noteworthy that China has always been committed to being transparent in the investigation of the World Health Organization, and the Chinese embassy in America, in response to criticism from the United States about the need to provide access to its previous preliminary data. , said that what America has done in recent years has severely damaged international cooperation on Covid 19, amid Global Health musings to return to Wuhan to continue investigations.
However, the United States expressed fear that the Chinese authorities had not provided all the information to the investigators or had interfered in one way or another.
