WUHAN, China (AP) – A World Health Organization team that examined the origins of the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday visited the food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, linked to many early infections.
Team members visited the Huanan Seafood Market for about an hour in the afternoon and one of them threw a sign with his thumbs when reporters asked how the trip was going.
The market was where a virus appeared in December 2019. Scientists initially suspected that the virus came from wild animals sold in the market. The market has been largely ruled out, but it could provide suggestions on how the virus spread so widely.
“Today there are very important site visits: First Wholesale Market and Huanan Seafood Market,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist with the US group EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO team, said in a tweet. “Very informative and critical for our joint teams to understand the epidemiology of COVID as it began to spread in late 2019.”
Earlier in the day, team members were also seen strolling through sections of the Baishazhou market, one of Wuhan’s largest wet markets, surrounded by a large entourage of Chinese officials and representatives. The market was Wuhan’s food distribution center during the city’s 76-day blockade last year.
Members, with experience in veterinary medicine, virology, food safety and epidemiology, have so far visited two hospitals at the center of the early outbreak: Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital.
On Saturday, they also visited a museum exhibit dedicated to the early history of COVID-19.
The mission has been politically charged as China tries to avoid blaming the alleged missteps in its first response to the outbreak.
A single visit by scientists is unlikely to confirm the origins of the virus. Detecting the animal deposit of an outbreak is usually a thorough effort that requires years of research, including animal sampling, genetic analysis, and epidemiological studies.
One possibility is that a wildlife thief passed the virus to traders who brought it to Wuhan. The Chinese government has promoted theories, with little evidence, that the outbreak could have started with imports of frozen seafood contaminated with the virus, a notion that was flatly rejected by scientists and international organizations.
___
Soo reported from Hong Kong.