Doubts remain hard to dispel after a four-week investigation by a WHO expert panel in Wuhan, China, to trace the origin of the virus. Some of the comments that flowed from the experts at the press conference seemed to fit quite well with the Chinese narrative, and they seemed to adopt a conciliatory attitude with the Chinese side to avoid criticism of China’s early concealment of the outbreak.
How Much Valuable Information WHO Experts Obtained
The WHO expert China investigation was very circumstantial, with China only agreeing to release Wuhan more than a year after the outbreak. Moreover, the extent of independence of the WHO expert investigation, which was eventually described as a “joint investigation” with Chinese experts, has been questioned.
The investigation process showed that the travel of the WHO experts was strictly protected, and the day of the visit to the Wuhan virus institute, the perimeter was filled with security personnel, and the experts were controlled by the security services wherever they went. Under such tight control, were the experts able to freely access the information they needed and meet the people they needed to meet?
Thea Kolsen Fischer, a Danish epidemiologist at WHO, told the media that she and the team were unable to get the “raw data” she wanted from China, lamenting. “I’m just going to have to go on trusting the vast amount of data they’ve already analyzed.”
At the press conference, however, the WHO experts said they went to all the locations they wanted to go to and met with the people they wanted to meet.
Where did the new coronavirus specimens from the Wuhan virus lab go?
The experts downplayed the possibility that the new coronavirus was leaked from the lab, with Chinese expert Liang Wannian explaining at the press conference that the virus could not have leaked from the lab because “there was no new coronavirus in the Wuhan lab before,” adding that the lab had strict management measures in place.
But his explanation adds to the doubt, at least, as a number of Chinese and foreign reports have previously pointed out the presence of a large number of specimens of the new coronavirus at the Wuhan Institute of Virus. Shi Zhengli, head of the P4 research lab at the Wuhan Virus Institute, disclosed to ‘Scientific American’ last February that her first thought upon learning of the Wuhan outbreak was, “Could the virus have gotten out of the lab?” Shi’s team tested samples of the virus from patients to establish the genetic sequencing of the virus, and used this to compare it with thousands of coronavirus samples her team had obtained from more than 10,000 bats over the years to rule out the possibility of a leak from the lab.
Is the source of the disease in China or elsewhere?
The Trump administration has been alleging that the new coronavirus came from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, and after WHO experts ruled out the possibility that the new coronavirus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, the U.S. State Department’s statement seemed to distance itself from its predecessor on the one hand, but at the same Time made clear that it would independently consider the findings of the WHO experts and the data underlying them. White House spokeswoman Bodhisattva said that the United States will conduct an independent assessment of the findings of the WHO Wuhan investigation, and she stressed that although the United States has rejoined the WHO, the United States “must have its own team of experts on the ground”.
State Department spokesman Price’s statement showed that the U.S. side is skeptical about whether the WHO experts have received full cooperation from the Chinese side and whether the Beijing authorities are fully transparent. However, the spokesman made clear that no reasonable person would doubt that the virus originated outside Wuhan, China.
The U.S. will make its own decision based on its own intelligence and analysis, combined with WHO data, a statement that appears to have angered Beijing, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin demanding that the U.S. take a “transparent approach” and invite WHO experts to investigate on U.S. soil, and official media Hu Xijin of the Global Times angrily stating: “The U.S. wants to study The results of the independent investigation by WHO experts? It should be the WHO that studies the relevant information from the United States.
After China initially brought the outbreak under control last year, it began making claims that the source of the new crown disease might be elsewhere. Beijing insisted that the WHO investigate whether the source of the new crown virus was in the United States, and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman even used the conspiracy theory that the new crown virus came from a leak in a U.S. military laboratory.
To avoid widespread international criticism, China has vigorously promoted some research about the new coronavirus having been found in other countries, such as Italy and France, before the Wuhan outbreak in late 2019. Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, who attended the press conference, argued that the studies in question did not present any clear evidence that the new coronavirus had been transmitted before.
Frozen Food spreads virus
Beijing has repeatedly claimed since last fall that the virus found in China was linked to imported foreign frozen foods. However, Michael Ryan, executive director of the World health Organization’s emergency medical program, has made it clear that there is no such thing as frozen food. Ryan has made clear that there is no evidence that frozen food has transmitted the new coronavirus.
However, the Chinese team seems to continue to affirm this hypothesis, with the head of the Chinese experts, Liang Wannian, claiming that the New Coronavirus can travel long distances through frozen foods.
AFP commented that this hypothesis is constantly mentioned in the Chinese media because it helps to solidify Chinese claims that the virus originated in a foreign country. But the World Health Organization has long been clear on this issue, arguing that there is no evidence that cold-chain food can transmit the virus.
But Danish scientist Peter Ben Embarek, a member of the WHO panel, seemed to contradict the WHO’s consistent view on Tuesday when he referred to the “possibility” of the virus being transmitted “through cold-chain food”. The “possibility” that the virus is transmitted to humans in this way is inconclusive. He argued that whether frozen wildlife in seafood markets can transmit the virus under certain conditions warrants further investigation.
What’s next
Marianne Koopmans believes that a more in-depth investigation should be conducted into the farms or trappers that supply wildlife to the Wuhan South China market. In addition, more sampling of animals in China and outside of China should be conducted.
Ambarek advocates that samples should be retested in a new way, analyzing sera and looking for traces of the virus earlier than Wuhan in December 2019.
China, for its part, wants the next investigation to be conducted in another country.
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