Table of contents:
- A final-stage investigation into the search for the origins of COVID-19
- 1,024,298
- 831,330
- 28,855
- An investigation into the origin of COVID-19 began in Wuhan
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In the ten months since Chinese health authorities have named the Huanan Market in Wuhan as the zero point of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still debate as to the origin of the virus that causes COVID-19. Therefore a thorough investigation is needed to find out exactly where the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated.
Thursday (5/11) the World Health Organization (WHO) released a plan to investigate the final stage of searching for the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. How is the search journey and what is the importance of these efforts in overcoming the spread of COVID-19 in the world?
A final-stage investigation into the search for the origins of COVID-19
The World Health Organization (WHO) has released its plans to investigate the origins of the COVID pandemic. The search will begin in Wuhan and expand across China to trace the path of the virus. This is important to prevent the spread of the virus in the future.
Most researchers think the virus originated in bats, but how it spread to humans is not yet known. Other coronaviruses have been transmitted from intermediate animal hosts, for example, the virus that caused SARS in 2002–2004 likely came to people from raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) or weasels.
Researching the origins of the virus could take years, if at all possible, and investigations should also navigate the highly sensitive political situation between China and the United States.
"The US president has referred to it as the 'Chinese virus' and the Chinese government is trying to do everything to answer that it is not the 'Chinese virus'," said Linfa Wang, a virologist at Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School, quoted from the journal Nature.
Wang, who was part of the search for the origin of SARS 2003, said the political game with blame, led to important details about ongoing research in China that had not been published.
He hopes the situation with the new US administration will not be too volatile. Support from China and the United States to WHO will create a more positive environment for conducting research in this area.
An international team of epidemiologists, virologists and researchers in the fields of public health, animal health and food safety will lead an investigation into the origins of WHO's COVID-19. However WHO has not released their names.
The WHO said the team held its first virtual meeting, including researchers in China, on October 30. The team is currently reviewing preliminary evidence and developing a research protocol.
COVID-19 Outbreak updates Country: IndonesiaData
1,024,298
Confirmed831,330
Recovered28,855
DeathDistribution MapAn investigation into the origin of COVID-19 began in Wuhan
The initial phase of investigating the origins of COVID-19 began in Wuhan and is planned to be carried out by researchers who have already been in China. International researchers will follow a flight to China after reviewing the results.
In Wuhan, researchers will take a closer look at the meat market and the Huanan animal market, which were the centers of the most visited locations for COVID-19 patients in the early days of case discovery. This wet market is suspected of being the zero point of the transmission area. But how this market plays a role in transmitting the virus is still a mystery.
In the initial investigation the researchers took samples of frozen animal carcasses, but found no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in these animals. The only clues to investigate the origin of COVID-19 from this market have only been obtained from environmental sampling. The result is from drains and sewage that have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
"This preliminary study has not yielded any credible instructions for narrowing down the research area," the report said.
WHO plans to investigate all wildlife and livestock sold in the market, including foxes, raccoons (procyon lotor), and sika deer (cervus nippon). They will also investigate other markets in Wuhan and trace the passage of animals from China across the border. Researchers will prioritize animals known to be susceptible to the virus, such as cats and stoats.
The investigation team will also look at Wuhan hospital records to find out whether the virus that causes COVID-19 spread before December 2019.
The preliminary data collected also included in-depth interviews of the first person identified as having COVID-19 regarding where he might have been exposed. This includes blood samples collected by medics, laboratory technicians and agricultural workers in the weeks preceding December.
Questions ranged from hunting for animals that might harbor the virus to checking the possibility that it came from a laboratory. There are many details to investigate, and investigating the origins of COVID-19 can be a long way to go.
