BEIJING (AP) – After two weeks of quarantine, the actual work can begin. May be.
A team of World Health Organization researchers left their hotel on Thursday for the first time since their arrival in the central Chinese city of Wuhan to begin searching for clues about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The visit has been hidden in secret: details of its itinerary have not been published and it is unknown what China will give researchers access to the places they want to visit and the people they want to talk to.
WHY IS THE TEAM IN CHINA?
Scientists hope the information on the first known cases of the new coronavirus – which was first identified in Wuhan – will help them better understand where it came from and prevent similar pandemics in the future.
Researchers around the world want access to samples from the Huanan Seafood Market, which had an early outbreak, and records from Wuhan Hospital.
The team can visit the market itself, as well as the location of other initial cases.
He could also go to a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that was built after the 2003 SARS pandemic and maintains an extensive archive of bat coronavirus genetic sequences. U.S. officials from the previous Trump administration suggested without offering evidence that the virus could have fled the institute.
Experts say the new coronavirus is unlikely to have emerged from Wuhan’s lab and say it is overwhelming that analysis of the new coronavirus genome rules out the possibility which was designed by humans.
Researchers could also visit hospitals that were overwhelmed at the height of the pandemic in China and the local branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The seafood market and other places where first cases arose are still important because the virus is constantly changing, as evidenced by the new strain found in the UK.
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WHAT DO RESEARCHERS EXPECT TO LEARN?
Wuhan is the place where COVID-19 cases were first detected, but it is very possible that the virus will reach the industrial city of eleven million people from other places.
Genetic sequencing shows that the coronavirus started in bats and probably jumped on another animal before infecting humans. The virus which is the known wardrobe of the cause of COVID-19 has been found in bats on a mine shaft about 1,600 kilometers southwest of Wuhan, near the Chinese border with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. The Associated Press was unable to visit the mine.
People started getting sick in Wuhan in December 2019 and many had links to the seafood market. Scientists initially suspected that the virus came from wild animals sold at the market, prompting China to crack down on wildlife trade.
But the later discovery of previous cases challenged this theory. The Chinese CDC said samples taken from the market indicate that it was probably a place where the virus spread, not where it started. The ability of the WHO team to foster our understanding of the virus and its credibility may depend in part on access to these samples.
Studying the genes from the first known cases in Wuhan could provide clues as to how it came from bats to people and whether it passed through a mammal such as a bamboo rat or an owl.
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WHAT OBSTACLES DOES THE TEAM FACE?
The big question is what will allow China to see and do the researchers. The ruling Communist Party is concerned that the investigation may shed light on its handling of the virus and may open it to international criticism, and even demands financial compensation if it is deemed to have been negligent.
China has stifled independent reports of the outbreak at home and published little information about its research into the origins of the virus. A PA investigation found that the government has strictly controlled all COVID-19-related research and banned investigators from speaking to the media.
Another PA investigation was found WHO officials privately complained that China had dragged its feet sharing critical information about the outbreak, including the genetic sequence of the new virus, even when the UN health agency publicly praised it. China for what it called a rapid response.
China, stung by complaints that allowed the disease to spread, has suggested the virus could come from abroad. A government spokesman has said the hunt for the origins will require work beyond China’s borders, including mouse habitats in neighboring Southeast Asia. An expert from the WHO team has suggested the same, and this is a possibility that researchers are exploring.
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WHEN WILL WE KNOW THE ANSWERS?
The search for the origins of COVID-19 is likely to take years. It took more than a decade to find the origins of SARS and the origins of Ebola, first identified in the 1970s, remain elusive. But knowing where the virus comes from could help prevent future outbreaks of wildlife viruses.