Health
Five Key Points from WHO’s Report on Travel to China
The World Health Organization released a report on Tuesday detailing the results of a review on the origin of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
This report is the result of a 17-member WHO team’s trip to China from January 14th to February 10th. The team worked with a number of Chinese scientists to investigate genetic, epidemiological, and animal data from the earliest known eras. Although it became a pandemic.
The· 120-page reportProvided a story of four possible origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, created by the WHO team-from laboratory leaks to animal-to-human jumps. Instead of drawing firm conclusions, he called for further investigation.
Many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Japan, Joint statement On Tuesday, questions arose as to whether China cooperated appropriately with the research process.
“We shared concerns that the research of international experts on the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete original data and samples,” the statement said. ..
In the open letter on March 4, International scientist China urged the global community to insist on releasing more data on the early stages of the outbreak.
Lawrence Gostyn, a global public health law expert at Georgetown University, said China had left global investigators abroad for a year and did not conduct or publish its own investigations. ..
The United States may have hesitated to invite them to the WHO team of investigators, but said, “The difference is that the United States will investigate thoroughly and make the results transparent and accountable.”
WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made a more diplomatic tone, but agreed that more research was needed.
“I don’t think this assessment was broad enough. More data and research is needed to reach a firmer conclusion,” he said in a briefing for Member States on the report on Tuesday. “This report is a very important beginning, but not an end. The source of the virus has not yet been found. We need to continue to follow science and not leave stones like us. “
USA TODAY addresses five questions addressed in the report.
1. Where did the virus come from?
The WHO team pursued stories of four different origins of the virus. It was transmitted directly from animals, perhaps bats, to humans. Passing through an animal between bats and humans. Arriving in Wuhan, China through the food chain. Or it was the result of a laboratory accident from one of the Wuhan Institutes where the first outbreak was reported.
The team found the most evidence of the second idea that the virus passed through multiple animals before reaching humans. Viruses known to have jumped from animal to human, called zoonotic viruses, are very common and include Zika fever, Ebola fever, West Nile fever, and influenza.
The Commission has determined that the food chain is “potentially” the source of the virus, perhaps through exposure to meat of frozen wild animals imported from elsewhere in China.
Gostyn dismissed this theory as “crazy.”
“It’s biologically plausible, but it’s very unlikely,” he said. “It’s not the way epidemics occur.”
He said he did not believe the virus could have originated outside China, as the Chinese government suggests.
“I don’t know how a credible scenario creates its origins outside of China. I don’t see any evidence of that,” he said. “There is no reliable scenario for that.”
The team decided that the fourth scenario, Labo Leak, was a “very unlikely route”, but promised to investigate the available information.
Biologist and public health expert Tedros of WHO said he was not ready to dismiss the possibility.
In a briefing to WHO member states, Tedros concluded, “The team concluded that a laboratory leak was the least likely hypothesis, but this requires further investigation and adds expert involvement. Mission may be required. ” “As far as WHO is concerned, let me be clear that all hypotheses remain in the table.”
2. Why did the team decide that the virus was unlikely to have originated from a lab leak?
When the virus first gained worldwide attention in January 2020, many people said that the virus was a laboratory, WHO team leader, Danish food safety and zoonotic expert Peter. I thought it must have been accidentally released from Ben Enbarek. I said at a press conference on Tuesday.
He said he initially wondered if even the staff at the Wuhan Institute was due to the institute studying the same coronavirus family of viruses as SARS-CoV-2.
Extensive research did not provide evidence of a leak, and the team considered many other leads to be more promising.
“Laboratory accidents happen occasionally,” said Ben Enbarek, so it could have happened in this case.
“But no one found any evidence of something similar to this virus in their records or samples,” he continued. “Apart from the idea that there are labs near the same city, or multiple labs nearby, we need a link. Other than that, none of these labs get solid discussion or evidence. I would have been involved in a lab leak or accident. “
The team talked to lab workers, examined lab data, and reviewed blood samples taken regularly from laboratory staff working with the virus, but found no evidence of exposure early in the outbreak. It was.
Dominic Dwyer, an Australian microbiologist and clinical professor of medicine, said: At the University of Sydney School of Medicine.
The team did not complete a laboratory “true forensic” test to check for leaks. “That wasn’t what we should do,” Dwire said.
Critics of the WHO study said the team was too focused on the source of the zoonotic virus, lacked the skills to investigate laboratory violations and accidents, and provided verbal guarantees from Chinese authorities. He said he was dependent.
Given the potential for lab leaks, Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview that the report should encourage action to improve lab safety. ..
Frieden said there were too many accidents and near misses in laboratories around the world. He said the Soviet Union could have accidentally released the flu virus in the late 1970s and spread it around the world. At the same time, a smallpox infection killed a British lab worker. The SARS virus escaped from the lab in 2004, killing one person. And under his own supervision at the CDC, he said there were some near misses.
“No matter what happened in China or not, we need a safer laboratory,” he said.
3. Why are animal routes considered to be the most likely?
Most scientists say the virus probably originated in animals and jumped into humans. Because it happened many times before.
Rabies is transmitted from animal bites. Simian immunodeficiency virus first occurred in monkeys before being infected with HIV. Ebola is thought to come from wildlife, probably because it eats bushmeat.
Viruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome – Known to have jumped from an animal.. In the case of SARS, the virus is thought to have reached humans via bats and then civets. In the case of MERS, camels are the intermediary, but they probably also appear in bats.
The team examined 80,000 samples from wildlife, livestock and poultry throughout China and 900 swabs from the fish market known to have the first outbreak, but the SARS-CoV-2 virus No obvious signs of the virus were found.
“What we are seeing are some clear connections and some clear paths that this virus may have followed,” said a zoonotic expert and worldwide. Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit organization that supports health and pandemic prevention, said.
“Looking at molecular, epi and animal data, our understanding of what happened in Wuhan began to match. Everything fits into the big picture and story of what’s happening. It looked like he was doing it, “he said. ..
Still, more information is needed, and Dazak said he hopes the Chinese government will provide it.
The report needed to further investigate the first 174 human cases detected in Wuhan in December 2019, and “environmental sampling from markets and farms in the area where the first human cases were identified,” And a detailed record of the source and type ”was mentioned. Wildlife species and domestic animals sold in these markets. “
4. When did the outbreak begin?
It is impossible to know exactly when it started without knowing exactly what caused it.
Many people infected with SARS-CoV-2 show no symptoms, so the outbreak was noticed by the Chinese in late December, when there was a population of people who were ill enough to be hospitalized. It was from.
Prior to that, researchers found that there was no increase in related illnesses and that drugstore purchases of antipyretics, cough remedies and cold remedies had not increased.
According to genetic data, the first case may have occurred as early as September, but it is more likely to occur between mid-November and early December.
The Chinese government pointed out a small amount of evidence suggesting that the virus started in another country earlier this year and arrived in China in December, but the report did not support the idea very much.
“The published gene sequences of SARS-CoV-2 isolated from human cases are all very similar, resulting in single-point introduction into the human population when the virus was first reported in Wuhan humans. China suggests the beginning of the virus, “the report found.
5. Did the Chinese interfere with the investigation?
Ben Enbarek said the Chinese government, like many other governments, is putting pressure on the team when it is at work.
“Of course, there was political pressure from all sides, even outside of China,” he said. “But I think we were able to create a space for science, a space for the two groups of scientists we worked with. We had nothing to hide. Therefore, it’s open. There was no problem working in the environment and sharing our work and discussions, as we had. “
Among them Joint statement On Tuesday, 14 countries asked questions about China’s future situation.
“We together support a transparent and independent analysis and evaluation of the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, without interference or undue influence,” the statement begins. “In this regard, we express common concerns about the recent WHO research in China and at the same time cooperate towards science-based development and use based on science that is fast, effective and transparent. It emphasizes the importance of that. An independent process for the international assessment of such occurrences of unknown cause in the future. “
According to Gostyn, the team was like a police investigator locked out of the crime scene.
“China has literally managed WHO experts. They told them what they could see, what they couldn’t see, when they could see it, and they were involved in the review of the report. There is credible evidence, he said. “This report does not show me how to access the kind of independent sources needed when WHO has been inaccessible for over a year. It was. “
While the report was useful, Gostyn said it didn’t add much novelty. “We didn’t really learn anything in a year.”
Ben Enbarek said the team members unanimously published the findings, including the idea that the report was only the first of many investigations into the origin of the virus.
They all agree that it is essential to learn more about the origin of the virus to prevent another pandemic.
“If you don’t find out what happened, you won’t know what happened. You’ll definitely face similar problems in the future,” he said.
Contact Karen Weintraub at [email protected].
Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY was partially made possible by grants from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition for Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.
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