WHO team says Coronavirus leak from Chinese lab highly unlikely
The World Health Organization (WHO) team probing the origin of the corona infection in China and the Chinese expert said on Tuesday that there was not enough evidence to suggest that the virus was spreading in Wuhan before December 2019. The team has also rejected the fact that it was leaked from the lab and said that it must have entered the human body through some germ-carrying species (organism).
China team chief Liang Wan Yan said, “There have been no signs of Sars-Cov-2 dispersal in the population before December 2019.” He said in the press conference that there is not enough evidence whether the virus had spread in the city earlier.
The WHO team said the investigation found new facts, but it did not make a dramatic change to Outbreak’s picture. WHO virus expert Peter Ben Embarek also said that investigations into the virus’s origins indicate that corona viruses are found naturally in bats, but it is less likely that they were in Wuhan. He also said that the virus’s path from the real animal to the Hunan Market in Wuhan could be extremely winding and would have crossed the boundaries.
Peter Ben Embarek said that the team had not found any evidence to suggest that the infection spread to Wuhan or any other place before December 2019. He said that there has been evidence that it had spread to Hunan Bazaar in Wuhan in December 2019. He said that the possibility of the theory of virus leaking from the lab is extremely low.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology collected a wide range of samples of the virus, leading to unproven allegations that the virus would spread to the surrounding environment. However, China rejected the possibility and said that the virus might have originated elsewhere. The WHO team visited hospitals, research institutes, a traditional market associated with the spread of the epidemic and other places besides the institute. The team consists of experts from 10 countries. The visit was carried out by the WHO team amid the continuing denial by China of an appeal for an independent investigation into the subject.
