A person wearing a face mask as a safety measure against Covid-19 walks past a Communist Party flag in Wuhan, China, March 31, 2020.
Noel Celis | AFP | Getty Images
On Friday, the World Health Organization urged China to release recent data linking the origin of the Covid pandemic to animal samples in a Wuhan market after the country recently withdrew from testing.
The agency said China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention uploaded data to the general public GISAID virus tracking database in late January for samples collected at the 2020 Huanan Market in Wuhan.
Scientists from several countries downloaded and analyzed the data before it was deleted, and presented their findings to the WHO last weekend. Researchers have found molecular evidence that raccoon dogs and other Covid-susceptible animals were sold within the market, consistent with hypotheses of transmission of the virus to humans from a wild animal.
The brand new data doesn’t provide a conclusive answer to how the pandemic began, “nevertheless it does provide more clues” concerning the potential host of the virus that spread it to humans, said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s Covid-19 technical manager. She called on China to make the data publicly available in order that the WHO and other researchers can further analyze it and are available closer to understanding the origins of the pandemic that has killed thousands and thousands world wide.
“Straight away, the largest problem is that this data exists and is just not available to the international community,” Van Kerkhove said. “To begin with, this is totally critical, not to mention that it must have been released years ago, however the data needs to be accessible to individuals who can access it, who can analyze it and who can discuss it with one another. “
The WHO call comes as the talk over the origins of Covid intensifies. Scientists argue over competing theories, and governments agree on what to do next.
Formerly The Latest York Times reported with recent data on Thursday. Scientists told the Times that molecular data was collected from swabs from partitions, floors, metal cages and carts in and across the market starting in January 2020. At the moment, the Chinese government had already shut down the market due to suspicions it was linked to outbreak of Covid.
The researchers added that enormous amounts of data matched raccoon dogs.
Van Kerkhove stressed that the data didn’t necessarily prove that a raccoon dog or other animal was infected with the virus and spread it to humans. But she said establishes that animals that may transmit Covid were sold within the market, which is “recent information”.
It is just not known where the animals got here from and whether or not they were wild or domestic, she added. According to Van Kerkhove, the WHO is pushing for trials in other markets in Wuhan and throughout China. He can be searching for serology tests that measure antibodies for individuals who have worked within the markets.
Van Kerkhove also noted that “all hypotheses” about how Covid entered the human population are still on the table. She said more research was needed into potential biosafety breaches from the lab or whether the virus originated within the bat before it spread to humans.
“We haven’t got all the knowledge in front of us, and we’d like to have the option to look at all these different hypotheses. We’d like to look at all of the data that is required to evaluate each in order that we are able to conclude that it can have happened, nevertheless it may not have happened,” she said.
She added that the WHO “would not have the option to remove the varied hypotheses” until China submitted its data.
FBI Director Christopher Wray he said earlier this month, the office believes that Covid almost definitely originated in a laboratory controlled by the Chinese government.
In February, the Department of Energy assessed “with little confidence” that Covid had leaked from the lab.
About 44% of American adults imagine the virus spilled from a virology lab in Wuhan, China, and 26% say it spread naturally from animals to humans, according to a Morning Seek the advice of poll. released last month.