The World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic origin investigation team will arrive at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on February 3, AFP news agency quoted information on Chinese state media.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, which studies the world’s most dangerous diseases, is one of the most focused on the WHO team of experts on the epidemic origin study.
There was a rumor earlier in the pandemic that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could have come from a laboratory there. There is no evidence for this hypothesis, but former US President Donald Trump and his allies repeatedly use that rumor to spread the conspiracy theories that China caused pandemic, according to AFP .
China’s CGTN channel on Feb. 3 said the WHO team would “visit the laboratory and exchange with experts from the Wuhan Institute of Viruses about their daily work, international scientific cooperation activities. , anti-epidemic efforts ”.
Mr. Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO research team, told reporters on Feb. 2 that the investigation is going “very well,” as the group is being taken to a center for animal disease control. .
Earlier, on January 31, a group of experts visited a seafood market in Wuhan, where the first infected cluster was recorded more than a year ago. Mr. Daszak said on Twitter this was an “important” destination.
The research team, consisting of international experts and WHO officials, will work with Chinese scientists to focus on understanding how the first patients may have been infected with the virus. They start from Wuhan, where Covid-19 was discovered in late 2019.
At the beginning of the epidemic, China was criticized domestically and internationally for its mistakes in dealing with the epidemic, as well as for hiding epidemic information.
Public opinion on the case of Dr. Li Wenliang, who rang the first alarm bells about the corona virus epidemic at his hospital in Wuhan, but was investigated by the police for “spreading rumors”. request error. He died on February 6, 2020 because of Covid-19, and was later vindicated.
Now, China is looking to direct public attention to its success in controlling Covid-19. Beijing often says the virus may not have originated in China, and some scientists in the country say the virus may have entered China through imported frozen goods.
On January 30, the WHO group visited the exhibition area on the process of dealing with the disease and recovery in Wuhan city.
Scientists believe that the virus can come from animals, be it bats, before “jumping” to humans, can be directly, or indirectly (through an intermediate host). So far, the closest “relative” of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been found in a bat in southwestern China, according to the South China Morning Post. However, this is still a hypothesis.