The WHO expert team finally entered the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research and met with Shi Zhengli, a renowned expert from the institute. It was highly suspected that the earliest outbreak of the new coronavirus in Wuhan may have been caused by a leak from this institute. As a result, the visit has attracted a great deal of attention.
The WHO team of experts traveled from their hotel to the Wuhan Virus Institute on Wednesday (Feb. 3) accompanied by plainclothes security guards and Chinese Foreign Ministry personnel.
The WHO team’s mission in Wuhan was to collect data to find the origin and mode of transmission of the virus. One member of the team said they intended to meet with some key researchers and ask them some critical questions. The expert team spent about three and a half hours at the Wuhan Virus Institute.
From the messages sent by the experts to the outside world, they seemed to be quite satisfied with the visit. Peter Daszak, a zoologist and member of the group, tweeted after leaving the Institute, “Very important meeting today with WHO staff, including Dr. Zhengli Shi. Open and honest discussion. Key questions were asked and answered.”
According to the U.S. television news network CNN, Dasak said, “We had a conversation with Jung-Li Shih. She was open. I hope we will have the same level of openness and transparency.”
Thea Fischer, another Danish expert on the panel, appeared reserved in her attitude when it came to her impressions of the visit. Fischer was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “It was interesting. A lot of questions were asked.”
In an interview with Britain’s Sky News on Tuesday, Dasak said his team “did make some progress” in its research and saw data “that no one had seen before,” meaning the possibility of a lab leak of the virus could not be ruled out.
However, Dasak did not have much confidence in the investigation before. He believes that the investigation should have been carried out in Wuhan a year ago, and that it may be too late to go now.
The Wuhan Institute of Virus Research is one of the top virus research laboratories in China, and Shi Zhengli is the deputy director of this institute and a virologist. She has worked with Dasak to trace the origins of Sars (SARS). SARS originated in China and caused the 2003 SARS Epidemic.
After the SARS epidemic, the Wuhan Institute of Virology created an archive of genetic information on bat coronaviruses. As a result, the Wuhan Virus Institute was thought to be possibly linked to the New coronavirus outbreak that first occurred in Wuhan in late 2019.
China has vehemently denied this possibility. Chinese official propaganda has been trying to steer the conversation about the source of the virus to other countries around the world, such as the United States, Italy, Spain, and Northern Europe, claiming that this pandemic was a simultaneous outbreak in multiple places around the world, of which Wuhan was only one.
Following the global pandemic outbreak, Shi Zhengli published numerous articles in academic journals trying to convince the outside world that the virus was not leaked from the Wuhan Virus Institute laboratory.
“Virus traceability is a complex scientific issue, and we need to provide enough space for experts to conduct scientific research,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference on Wednesday.
For now, the outside world is largely in the dark about exactly what specific information the WHO panel obtained at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research. According to the Associated Press, the institute has a number of plainclothes security at the front gate, and although journalists were allowed to enter with the group, they did not have the opportunity to engage with the experts. Individual experts have made a few remarks to the public through the social media.
The WHO team’s activities in Wuhan were largely restricted by the Chinese side, as they were not allowed to have much contact with the media or to speak freely with the community. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said at a recent press conference that they would only have access to a few people who are organized and connected to the study.
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