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Dominic Dyer, an Australian representative from the World Health Organization (WHO) team that collected records on the early days of the corona virus spread in Wuhan, returned to Sydney, where he spoke to “Business Insider” about his knowledge of the origin . of the pandemic.
As part of the mission, scientists met a man who was the first confirmed case of kovida-19 on December 8, 2019. He has since made a full recovery. They met with doctors working in Wuhan hospitals to treat the first cases of infection and found out what happened to them and their colleagues.
They witnessed the influence of kovid-19 on many people and in the community at the world’s first crown hotspot, fighting the plague when the world didn’t know much about the virus – how it spreads, how it is treated or what consequences. leaves on the body.
They spoke with Chinese colleagues – scientists, epidemiologists, doctors – during the four weeks that the WHO mission was in China.
Here’s what Dyer and his colleagues learned about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The virus is most likely of animal origin.
It was in Wuhan, central China, that the virus now called SARS-CoV-2 appeared in December 2019. Investigations by the WHO mission concluded that the virus is most likely of animal origin.
It probably passed to the bat people, through a hitherto unknown intermediary animal, in an unknown place. These “zoonotic” diseases have triggered pandemics before.
Scientists are still working to determine the exact chain of events that led to the current pandemic. To date, samples taken from bats in Hubei province and wildlife throughout China have not shown the presence of SARS-CoV-2.
The researchers visited the now-closed “wet market” in Wuhan, which was credited with spreading the virus in the early days of the pandemic. Some market stalls sold wild animals and their products. There is also evidence that some wild animals are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, however none of the animal products tested after the market close was positive for this virus.
We also know that not all of the first 174 kovida-19 cases visited the market, including the first person to be diagnosed.
However, when they visited the closed market, they saw how easily the infection could spread there. When it was open, about 10,000 people visited it daily.
There is also genetic evidence generated during the mission that there was a group there. The viral sequences collected from various people who visited the market were identical, indicating a transmission group. However, there was some diversity in other viral sequences, implying other unknown transmission chains.
A summary of the study of tracking the first common ancestor of the various SARS-CoV-2 sequences estimated that the onset of the pandemic was between mid-November and early December. There are also publications suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 was present in several countries prior to the first case in Wuhan, although confirmation is required.
The conclusion is that the Wuhan market was the first place with the greatest spread of the virus, than the “zero point”. So scientists have to look for the origin of the virus elsewhere.
Laboratory setting
The most politically sensitive option that scientists have considered is that the virus “escaped the laboratory.” They concluded that this was an extremely unlikely option.
They visited the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, which is an impressive research facility and, as Dyer says, seems to work well with employee health care.
The WHO scientists spoke with colleagues there. You’ve heard that blood samples from scientists that are routinely taken and stored have been tested at the crown. No evidence of the presence of antibodies was found. They also analyzed their biosecurity audits and found no omissions.
They looked at the virus closest to the SARS-CoV-2 they were working on, the RaTG13 virus, which was discovered in caves in southern China, where some miners had died seven years earlier.
But all the Chinese scientists had was a genetic sequence for this virus, they couldn’t grow it. Although it is possible for the virus to “escape” the laboratory, it is extremely rare. So, they concluded that it was extremely unlikely to happen in Wuhan.
A team of more than 30 experts
The mission was a joint exercise of the WHO and the China Health Commission. There were a total of 17 Chinese and 10 international experts, in addition to seven other experts and support staff from various agencies. They considered clinical epidemiology (how corona spreads among humans), molecular epidemiology (the genetic makeup of the virus and its spread), and the role of animals and the environment.
The Clinical Epidemiology Group alone reviewed 76,000 Chinese records from more than 200 institutions for anything that resembles COVID-19, such as flu-like illnesses, pneumonia, and other respiratory illnesses. They found no clear evidence of significant crown rotation in Wuhan during the second part of 2019, before the first case.
Whats Next?
The mission in China was only the first phase. An official report is expected in the next few weeks. The researchers will also search for more data to investigate evidence that the virus circulated in Europe during 2019. They will also continue to test wildlife and other animals in the region for the absence of the virus.
Regardless of the origin of the virus, individual cases are ahead of epidemiological data, sequences and numbers. The long-term physical and psychological effects of the tragedy and anxiety will be felt in Wuhan, but also elsewhere for decades to come.
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