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The World Health Organization team in Wuhan investigating the origins of COVID-19 says they are getting data “that no one has seen before” and that they are “really getting somewhere”, and have not ruled out the possibility that the virus has escaped from a laboratory.
Dr Peter Daszak, part of the WHO ongoing mission, told Sky News: “We are seeing new information and it is good, it is something very valuable that is beginning to help us find the correct addresses for this virus.”
In his first interview with a British broadcaster since arriving at China, Dr. Daszak, who is the president of the EcoHealth Alliance, an NGO, said that visits to the site offered valuable information, especially the Huanan Seafood Market, where the first cases of COVID-19 were grouped.
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Dr. Peter Daszak, part of the WHO mission in Wuhan, China, investigates the origins of the coronavirus
“We are in the market looking around us and asking questions, we meet with market managers, with suppliers who worked there and people from the community and we ask them questions.
“We’re talking to people who collected samples from the market floor that then tested positive. That’s the kind of information we’re getting from the person who really matters.”
The WHO mission reached Wuhan more than a year after the outbreak began, after the organization complained about delays in access. But Chinese scientists have been conducting their own research on the origins of COVID-19 in the meantime. Dr. Daszak said that “there are little clues that we find here and there in the large amount of data.”
“They are sharing data with us that we have not seen before, that no one has seen before. They are talking to us openly about all possible avenues. We are really getting somewhere and I think all the team members would say that.”
WHO team members visit the Hubei Center for Animal Epidemic Disease Control and Prevention in Wuhan
“I think China is open and willing to work with us and we see it every day.”
WHO plans to visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology. There, researchers tampered with coronavirus, but rejected claims that COVID-19 arose as a result of a leak. Dr. Daszak told Sky News that the possibility had not been ruled out.
“We are all aware of the hypotheses about the possible involvement of the laboratory in this and we are certainly going to ask questions about all key aspects of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“If there is data that points to a hypothesis, we will follow the data, we will follow the evidence where it leads us. If it leads us to a seafood market and a cold chain, we will follow it there.
“If you take us to a wildlife farm or a wildlife market, we will go there. If you take us to a laboratory, we will go there. Everything is on the table and we keep an open mind.”
Dr. Peter Daszak, part of the WHO mission in Wuhan, China, investigates the origins of the coronavirus
Dr. Daszak has a long working relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and with Shi Zhengli, a researcher there, but he rejected the suggestion that his connections to the lab would compromise his impartiality.
“My relationship with China, my work here, my connections with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Shi Zhengli are very well known. And they are very well known because I have spent 20 or 15 years publishing the data. I think that is something very valuable that we have been doing “.
The WHO mission is strictly controlled by China, with scientists being kept isolated as part of the country’s COVID-19 prevention measures. Critics have questioned the extent to which the investigation is being managed, especially after scientists visited a propaganda museum detailing Wuhan’s fight against COVID-19 on its second day.
Dr. Daszak defended the visit to the museum, which features giant portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping in its first room.
“We are smart enough to read beyond the show in a museum,” he said. “We know what the flags are flying and the part of national pride. But there are actual artifacts from actual patients … It is absolutely critical to see that.”
Dr. Daszak was optimistic about eventually finding the origins of COVID-19.
“We will get there and at the end of this mission we will prepare a report that will have some indications of what the most likely scenarios are.”
But even if the origin is discovered, Dr. Daszak said that the new variants of the virus meant that we would live with COVID-19 forever.
“This is one of the viruses that jumps to humans and then becomes endemic, and it will be with us forever.
“But we will accept it. We will have a vaccine that works and we will get an escape variant, we will modify the vaccine.”
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