WHO experts will investigate the laboratory in Wuhan. It was from there that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was supposed to get out

A team of experts from the World Health Organization has launched a mission in Wuhan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. “We got data that no one had seen before,” says one scientist. The team is about to investigate a laboratory in Wuhan, from which – as some believe – a deadly pathogen “escaped”.

1. World Health Organization (WHO) mission in Wuhan launched, coronavirus pandemic started
2. WHO scientists are planning to visit a laboratory in Wuhan, from where – according to some theories – the SARS-CoV-2 virus was supposed to get out
3. We do not rule out any hypothesis, says one WHO team member
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

WHO will check the famous laboratory in Wuhan

A team of WHO experts has started a visit to Wuhan to investigate the sources of the coronavirus pandemic and verify all hypotheses. The mission, of course, takes place under the strict control of the Chinese authorities, was preceded by a 14-day quarantine and bureaucratic scuffles.

The team will visit, among others Wuhan Institute of Virology, a laboratory from which – according to many supporters of conspiracy theories – the SARS-CoV-2 virus was to come out.

This laboratory is equipped with devices ensuring the highest level of biological safety (BSL-4). Such centers are designed to study the most dangerous pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2. The Wuhan laboratory was established in the wake of the SARS epidemic that broke out in China in late 2002.

Such laboratories are seen as places from which deadly or accidental viruses can get out. In the case of the center in Wuhan, it was suggested, among others, by administration of President Donald Trump.

SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory product

However, most experts rule out such a possibility. In March last year, leading infectious disease specialists in the journal Nature Medicine said it was “unlikely” that the novel coronavirus could have started in a laboratory. They said so after a comparative analysis of genomic data. – Our analysis shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory product or a deliberately manipulated virus, the article reads.

Dr. Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO team currently in Wuhan and the president of the EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit organization dealing with environmental protection, ensures the quality of security in the facility. – I know this laboratory really well. The security level is high and the team is doing a good job – he said in an interview with CNN. Daszak has a long-standing relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and team leader Shi Zhengli, but dismisses suggestions that his connections affect the impartiality of his assessment. At the same time, it rejects concerns that Beijing will limit the information provided by the Chinese. He hopes his personal relationship with the lab management will ensure that WHO activists get everything they need.

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– We have already talked with Shi Zhengli and she is willing to cooperate. I hope we will achieve an appropriate level of openness and transparency, he said.

Daszak does not hide his regret that the visit to Wuhan takes place so late. “We could have been here a year ago, then we would have found more useful information,” he says.

“Nothing can be ruled out”

The same Daszak in an interview with Sky News was less skeptical about the theory that the virus would get out of the laboratory in Wuhan. In his opinion, nothing can be ruled out. – We are aware of the theories about this center. We will be asking questions about all key aspects of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he announced.

– We’ll check every hypothesis. If any suggestions speak of the seafood market we will go there. If the trail leads to a farm or wildlife market, we’ll go there. If it leads to the lab, we’ll go there too. All the cards are on the table and we keep an open mind – he added.

Daszak praises the willingness of Chinese scientists to cooperate. – We are getting new information and these are very valuable things that are starting to help us find many answers about the coronavirus. They share data with us that we have not seen before. They talk to us openly about every possible path. We’re really going somewhere, ‘he says.

Wuhan seafood market – that’s where it all started

Earlier, the WHO team visited a seafood market that had been closed for a year, where people with pneumonia-like symptoms were detected for the first time at the end of 2019, which are believed to be the first harbingers of a pandemic.

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“Even if this place has been disinfected to some degree, all the shops and all equipment remained there. This gives a good picture of the state of the market, its infrastructure, hygiene and the flow of goods and people, said Peter Ben Embarek, WHO team leader. “It’s clear that something has happened in this market,” he added.

Team members took a lot of samples and found the visual inspection to be very useful. – We could imagine what it looked like. An infected person working on a stall and a lot of people around. For me, it was a key moment in our mission so far – said Dr. Daszak, a specialist in zoonoses.

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