WUHAN – World Health Organisation (WHO) inspectors today visited a laboratory in China’s Wuhan city that United States officials suggested could have been the source of Covid-19.
The inspection of the Wuhan virology institute, which conducts research on the world’s most dangerous diseases, will be one of the most-watched stops by the team probing into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
The sensitive mission, which China had delayed throughout the first year of the outbreak, has a remit to explore how the virus jumped from animal to human.
But, questions remain over what the experts can hope to find after so much time has passed.
The convoy of cars drove past security to enter the institute shrouded in mist this morning, with the first vehicle pausing briefly to take questions from journalists.
WHO team member Peter Daszak said the inspectors are “looking forward to a very productive day, and to asking all the questions that we know need to be asked”.
Scientists think Covid-19 – which first emerged in Wuhan and has gone on to kill more than two million people worldwide – originated in bats, and could have been transmitted to people via another mammal.
However, there are no definitive answers so far.
There was speculation early in the pandemic that the virus could have accidentally leaked from the biosafety lab in Wuhan, although there is no evidence to back up that theory.
Lab theories
Then US president Donald Trump and his supporters seized on those rumours and amplified them with conspiracy theories that China deliberately leaked the virus.
Then secretary of state Mike Pompeo insisted last year that there was “significant evidence” that the virus came from the lab, while releasing no proof and acknowledging the lack of certainty.
Chinese state broadcaster CGTN said the WHO team will “visit the national biosafety laboratory and exchange ideas with experts of the institute on their daily work, international scientific cooperation, anti-epidemic efforts and contribution”.
China has faced criticism at home and abroad for playing down the initial outbreak and concealing information when Covid-19 first emerged in Wuhan in December 2019.
But, Daszak told journalists yesterday that the WHO mission is proceeding “very well”, as the group was driven into an animal disease control centre.
China is also determined to put the focus on its recovery from the outbreak, and the WHO team toured a propaganda exhibition celebrating the nation’s recovery from the pandemic in Wuhan on Saturday.
On Sunday, the team went to the market in Wuhan where one of the first reported clusters of infections emerged over a year ago, which Daszak tweeted is a “critical” stop.
Shi Zhengli, one of China’s leading experts on bat coronaviruses and deputy director of the Wuhan lab, raised eyebrows in an interview last June with the Scientific American magazine, in which she said she was initially anxious over whether the virus had leaked from the facility.
But, subsequent checks revealed that none of the gene sequences matched the viruses held by the lab, she said, adding: “I had not slept a wink for days.”
She later said she would “bet her life that (Covid-19) had nothing to do with the lab”, reported Chinese state media. – AFP, February 3, 2021
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