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GENEVA: An international expert mission to Wuhan concluded that Covid-19 was highly likely to pass to humans for the first time from a bat via an intermediary animal, while almost ruling out a laboratory leak.
The intermediate host hypothesis was deemed “highly probable,” while the theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory was deemed “extremely unlikely,” according to the long-awaited report, of which AFP obtained a copy on Monday before the official launch.
The report of the international mission to Wuhan has been highly anticipated since the team of experts left China more than a month ago.
Delays in publishing the findings, drafted in collaboration with the team’s Chinese counterparts, were attributed to coordination and translation problems, even as a diplomatic tug of war raged in the background over the report’s content.
During a lengthy press conference in Wuhan on February 9 at the end of the mission, the experts and their Chinese counterparts made it clear that they could not yet draw firm conclusions.
But they said they had worked to classify various hypotheses according to how likely they were.
‘Lost link’
Experts believe that the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 disease originally came from bats.
One theory examined was that the virus jumped directly from bats to humans. The final report determined that this scenario was “possible or probable”.
A more likely scenario, the report found, was that the virus had first jumped from bats to another animal, which in turn infected humans.
“Although the closest related viruses have been found in bats, the evolutionary distance between these bat viruses and SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to be several decades, suggesting a missing link,” the report said.
“The scenario involving introduction through an intermediate host was considered very likely,” he said, although he did not conclude which animal may have allowed the virus to jump to humans first.
Meanwhile, the report did not rule out transmission via frozen food, Beijing’s favorite theory, as the virus appears to be able to survive in sub-zero temperatures, saying that “introduction via cold / chain products is considered possible. food ”.
Finally, the report examined the idea of a laboratory leak, for example, from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a theory promoted by the administration of former US President Donald Trump.
He pointed to the fact that there was no record of any SARS-CoV-2-like viruses in any laboratory prior to December 2019, and highlighted the high levels of safety in the Wuhan laboratories.
“The origin of the pandemic in a laboratory was considered extremely unlikely,” he said. – AFP
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