WUHAN, China (AP) – World Health Organization researchers visited a research center in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Wednesday that has been the subject of speculation about the origins of the coronavirus, with a member who said that they intended to bring together key personnel to put pressure on them on critical issues.
The visit of the WHO team to the Wuhan Institute of Virology was one of the highlights of their mission to collect data and look for clues as to where the virus originated and how it spread.
“We’re looking forward to meeting all the key people here and asking all the important questions that need to be asked,” said zoologist and team member Peter Daszak, according to images from Japanese broadcaster TBS.
Reporters followed the team to the high-security facility, but, as on previous visits, there was little direct access to team members, who have so far given few details of their discussions. and visits. Uniformed and plainclothes security guards were guarded along the closed front entrance of the facility, but there was no trace of the protective clothing worn by team members on Tuesday during a visit to a center. of animal disease research. It was unclear what protective equipment was worn inside the institute.
The team left after three hours without speaking to reporters waiting.
In a daily briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the experts also held talks on Wednesday with experts from Huazhong Agricultural University.
“It should be noted that virus traceability is a complex scientific issue and we need to provide enough space for experts to conduct scientific research,” Wang said. “China will continue to cooperate with WHO in an open, transparent and accountable manner, and will help to better prevent future risks and protect the lives and health of people in all countries.”
After two weeks of quarantine, the WHO team that includes experts in veterinary medicine, virology, food safety and epidemiology from ten countries has visited hospitals, research institutes and a traditional wet market related to many for the past six days. of the first cases. His visit followed months of negotiations, as China wants to maintain tight control over information about the outbreak and research into its origins, in what some have seen as an attempt to avoid blaming any mistakes in the his first answer.
One of China’s leading virus research laboratories, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, built a genetic information archive on bat coronavirus after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003. This has led to allegations demonstrated that they could have a link to the original COVID-19 explosion in Wuhan in late 2019.
China has strongly denied this possibility and has also promoted unproven theories that the virus could have originated elsewhere or even been introduced into the country from abroad with imports of frozen seafood contaminated by the virus, a notion which have been flatly rejected by scientists and international organizations.
The deputy director of the institute is Shi Zhengli, a virologist who worked with Daszak to trace the origins of SARS originating in China and which sparked the 2003 outbreak. by the former Trump administration and other U.S. officials that the virus is a firearm or a “laboratory leak” from the institute.
Confirmation of the origins of the virus is likely to take years. Determining the deposition of animals from an outbreak usually requires thorough research, including animal sampling, genetic analysis, and epidemiological studies. One possibility is that a savage thief passed the virus to traders who took it to Wuhan.
The first COVID-19 groups were detected in Wuhan in late 2019, prompting the government to put the city of 11 million in a strict 76-day closure. Since then, China has reported more than 89,000 cases and 4,600 deaths, with new cases largely concentrated in its local and northeastern closures and travel restrictions imposed to contain outbreaks.
New cases of local transmission continue to fall, with only 15 reported on Wednesday, as the Chinese government heeded calls not to travel for the Lunar New Year holidays later this month.