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Since the outbreak of the new Corona virus “Covid-19”, speculation has increased that the virus causing the pandemic likely first appeared in the virus laboratory in Wuhan, China. WHO inspectors visited the laboratory on Wednesday.
Before that, WHO experts visited several important sites in Wuhan, the city where the first COVID-19 cases were detected in December 2019.
But the visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan is the highest on the team’s agenda, due to a controversial hypothesis that the institute is the origin of the epidemic.
Former President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised that hypothesis last year.
Here are 6 questions about the institute’s visit today:
1- What are the tasks of the institute?
Scientists at the institute are conducting research on the world’s most dangerous diseases and helped shed light on the pathogenesis of Covid-19 in the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan.
Last February, they published research that found that the genetic blueprint of the new virus is 80% similar to the SARS coronavirus, and a 96% match across the genome level of a coronavirus found in bats.
Researchers at the lab had previously done extensive research on the bats’ link to a disease outbreak in China.
Many scientists believe that the virus that causes Covid-19 originated in bats and may have been transmitted to humans by another mammal, but there is no evidence for this yet.
2- Does the institute deal with deadly viruses?
Yes. The institute is home to the largest virus bank in Asia and maintains more than 1,500 strains.
The complex is the strictest safety laboratory in Asia and is equipped to deal with category IV (B4) pathogens such as Ebola.
The P4 lab, which costs 300 million yuan ($ 42 million), opened in 2018. The P3 lab, which includes security levels for corona viruses, has been in operation since 2012.
3- What do we know about the origin of the virus?
Many prominent scientists announced early in the epidemic that the pathogens appeared to be naturally occurring, and there is not much controversy regarding their first large-scale outbreak in late 2019 in a market for live wild animals sold for consumption in Wuhan. .
But the origin tracing stops there, and some unconfirmed clues have indicated that the origin of the virus may have been before its outbreak in Wuhan.
A study carried out by a group of Chinese experts and published in The Lancet Medical Journal in the first period of the epidemic showed that the first patient with Covid-19 had no relation to the animal market, and the same happened with 13 cases. of the first of the 41 confirmed cases.
4- Why talk about the hypothesis of abandoning the laboratory?
US diplomatic cables reported by the Washington Post have revealed concerns in Washington about security standards at the Wuhan facility.
Shi Jingli, a leading Chinese expert on coronavirus in bats and deputy director of the P4 lab, raised more questions in a June 2020 interview with Scientific American, in which she stated that she was initially concerned about whether the virus had leaked from her. laboratory.
Subsequent tests showed that the genetic sequence of the virus was different from that of viruses kept in the lab, according to Shi, who added: “I didn’t close my eyes for several days.”
He later said that he “swears on his life” that there have been no leaks, according to Chinese media.
Trump and Pompeo promoted the hypothesis until it reached everyone’s mouth. While Pompeo said last year that there was “significant evidence” that the virus came from the laboratory, he had not provided any evidence and acknowledged there was no certainty.
5- Why does the hypothesis of origin persist in a laboratory?
With no progress in determining the origin of the virus more than a year after the epidemic, the hypothesis of in vitro origin has re-emerged.
In early January, a lengthy article in a New York magazine examining this possibility in detail brought it to light.
Other leading publications, such as Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal, as well as experts from Harvard and Stanford universities, have published articles or reports that consider the laboratory hypothesis a possibility.
6- What happened on today’s visit?
The WHO team spent three and a half hours at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and team member Peter Daszak said on Twitter: “We had a very important meeting today with the staff of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including Dr. Shi Ching Li There were frank discussions and important questions “about her” were asked and answered.
Shi, a well-known virus expert, has long focused her work on corona viruses that are transmitted from bats, earning her the nickname (Batwoman), and was among the first to be able, last year, to isolate the pop-up crown. virus that causes Covid-19 disease.
Most scientists, including Shi, reject the hypothesis that the virus was leaked from a laboratory. But some experts speculate that the virus that was discovered in the wild and entered into laboratory experiments to find out the risk of transmission to humans may have been discharged from the laboratory by an infected employee.
The team will spend two weeks in field work after completing two weeks in quarantine at a hotel after arriving in Wuhan.
