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A joint study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and China on the origin of Kovid-19 affirms that the transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario of the disease and that the failure in the laboratory is a problem. Extremely unlikely cause Information on the report.
The long-awaited WHO report has been postponed several times until now and was officially released on Tuesday. According to the report, as announced by the WHO, the transmission of kovid 19 through the intermediate host is “probable or very probable”, the transmission through the cold or the food chain is “possible”, while the escape of the virus of the laboratory is “extremely unlikely”.
The United States and 13 other countries have expressed doubts in the WHO report on the origin of the corona virus. The joint statement indicates that the report was postponed and that complete data was not presented. In addition to the United States, the declaration was signed by the governments of Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, South Korea, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom.
The head of the WHO called on Tuesday to launch a new investigation by specialized experts on the presumption of a leak of the virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic from a laboratory in China, and warned that international experts do not have unrestricted access. to the data.
“Away from the investigation”
The report is mainly based on a visit by a team of international experts from WHO to the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the new corona virus was first discovered, during January and February last year, according to the AP, while “CBS News “writes that the investigation of the world organization was far from exhaustive, because the Chinese government withheld information.
“I really wouldn’t call what happened an investigation … It was essentially a study tour with high-level escorts and expert guides,” Jamie Metzl, a former National Security Council official in the US president’s administration, said in an interview with CBS. Bill Clinton and a member of the WHO advisory committee for genetic engineering.
Metzl is one of more than 20 experts who in an open letter earlier this month called for a new international investigation with the return to China.
– Yes, a study tour … Everyone thinks this is some kind of full investigation. It is not. This group of experts only saw what the Chinese government wanted them to see, Metzl notes.
“It’s like exploring Chernobyl with the Soviets”
The letter from the experts also indicates that the WHO team did not have the independence or access to conduct a full and unlimited investigation, especially regarding the possibility of the virus accidentally leaving the laboratory of the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, the epicenter. of the pandemic.
– We should ask the question: Why in Wuhan? To quote Humphrey Bogart (in the movie Casablanca): “Of all the bars in all the cities of the world, why Wuhan?” What Wuhan has is the virology institute of the fourth biosafety level, with probably the largest collection of viruses in the world in bats, including coronavirus, Mecl said.
CBS claims that the WHO team spent only three hours in the lab, while Metzl said that while they were there, they “did not ask for access to data and samples or key personnel.” However, this is due to the rules set by the WHO, which has no authority to require or impose international protocols.
– First, it was agreed that China will have the right to veto even those who will be on the mission. And the WHO agreed with that. Furthermore, the WHO has agreed that China will carry out primary research in most cases and then only share the findings with international experts. So those experts weren’t allowed to conduct their primary research, Metzl said.
Metzl compared it to Chernobyl.
– Imagine we asked the Soviet Union to explore Chernobyl together. That really doesn’t make sense, ”he pointed out.
“The road goes from the farms to the market”
China, CBS recalls, ruled out the option of a laboratory error long before the WHO team arrived in Wuhan on January 14, where they were greeted by the hosts in full protective gear. They were there for four weeks, but spent two in a quarantined hotel. When they came out, there was tension with a team of Chinese experts over their refusal to provide raw data.
If the virus originated in an animal, one of the questions would be how did it travel a thousand and a half kilometers from the bat cave to Wuhan in central China? The WHO team believes they have found the answer. Peter Dashak, a member of the team and an expert on the transmission of the virus from animals to humans, says the “path” does not lead to a laboratory in Wuhan, but rather goes from wildlife farms in southern China directly to the market in Wuhan: “Huanan”.
– The theory is that the bat virus somehow spread to those farms. And then the animals were transported to market and infected the people who processed them, killed them, which is needed before cooking them, he told CBS.
Dashak explained that wild animals are “traditional food” in China.
– Civets … the so-called badgers, rabbits, which we know transmit the virus, those animals came to the market from farms more than a thousand and a half kilometers away – he said.
When asked if he could test an animal from the market in Wuhan for the virus, Dashak said the Chinese team did it and they found several animals in the freezers.
– They tested them, they came back negative. But the fact that those animals are there is crucial, he said.
However, this means that there is no direct evidence that any of these animals were infected with the virus that was passed on from the bat.
– Now we have to go to those farms and investigate, talk to farmers, their families, test, see first if there was an increase in the number of infected – he said.
Possibility of laboratory error
Despite the open questions, the WHO and the Chinese teams agreed that this hypothesis of the movement of the virus, from a cave to a butcher, is the most likely explanation.
– Approximately 75% of new diseases are transmitted from animals to humans. We have seen it before. We saw it in China with the SARS virus, Dashak notes.
As for the “lab error”, it says the following:
– If the virus that later led to Kovid came out by accident, the virus caused by Kovid would have to be in the laboratory. They never had evidence of a virus like Kovid in the lab. They never had it in the lab before the pandemic. Absolutely. There is no evidence of that – said Dasak.
Dasak said he joined the WHO team “for a reason.”
– If you need to go to China to work with coronaviruses and try to understand their origins, you must include the people who know the most about it. And I know – he said, adding that the WHO team tested the theory that the virus escaped from the laboratory during a visit to the facility and concluded that it was “extremely unlikely.”
“We take your word for it”
– We met with them. We asked them if they were inspecting the lab, they said once a year. Did you examine her after the outbreak? They said yes. Did you find something? They said no. Have you tried your staff? “Yes,” Dasak said.
He admitted that they believed the word of Chinese scientists.
– What else could we do? He asked, adding that there was a limit to how far they could go.
– We asked them tough questions. They did not veto in advance. And the answers they gave were convincing, precise and convincing – he pointed out.
Dashak also noted that they were not tasked with finding out whether China allegedly destroyed the evidence and covered up the question of the origin of the virus, but that they certainly saw no evidence of false reporting or concealment during their work in China. .
Dashak said that Chinese Foreign Ministry staff were present during his stay, “to ensure that everything runs smoothly on their part.”
– You sit in a room with people who are scientists and you know what is a scientific statement and what is political. We had no problem distinguishing them – he pointed out.
After 15 months and more than 2.7 million deaths from Kovid in the world, the hope was that the WHO team would clarify at least something about the origin of the virus. But the investigation ended with more questions than when it began, concludes CBS.
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