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dpa
Beijing
World Health Organization (WHO) experts visited a research centre in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Wednesday as part of their probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wuhan is where the virus was first thought to have crossed over from animals to humans, although China has disputed this. It soon spread to other parts of China and then worldwide.
The visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is considered a highlight of the experts’ investigation.
The laboratory is a leading institution under China’s Academy of Sciences and conducts research with coronaviruses from bats, which are suspected to be the source of the pandemic.
Peter Ben Embarek, the scientist leading the WHO team, told the Global Times newspaper that his team had visited the WIV and the institue’s lab, known as P4, on Wednesday.
Established in 1956, the WIV is home to China’s first biosafety laboratory where researchers study pathogens. The lab follows strict international standards, as do similar labs around the world.
It was also one of the designated agencies of the National Health Commission to submit the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus to the WHO on January 12, 2020, according to the report in the Global Times, a newspaper published by the Chinese government.
Conspiracy theories have circulated that the virus might have escaped from this lab, but international and Chinese experts have rejected this.
Those working at the lab said such allegations were “ridiculous” and “not even worth refuting,” the newspaper reported, citing sources.
A source close to the lab said it had never had a “hazardous event,” and rejected the suggestion that there had been no cellphone activitiy for three weeks in October 2019 in a high security section of the WIV, the paper reported.
The lab has been “ruthlessly smeared by some anti-China politicians, such as former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, as part of their long-term strategy to incite a Cold War-like confrontation with China, with no respect being given to science and facts,” the newspaper wrote.
There have also been unproven suspicions that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could have come from a lab accident with an artificially manipulated coronavirus.
But the majority of leading experts who have viewed the genetic data are agreed that the coronavirus that has spread across the world came about naturally.
Internationally renowned bat researcher Shi Zhengli, nicknamed “batwoman,” has already met with the WHO experts and held a presentation for them.
The search for the origins of the pathogen is politically sensitive, and China has lashed out against countries like Australia for demanding such an investigation.
Beijing appears to fear being blamed for the pandemic, which has killed more than 2.2 million people worldwide.
China’s propaganda apparatus in recent months has made efforts to cast doubt over whether the virus originated in the country at all, including by pointing to unconfirmed reports there could have been infections in other countries before they started cropping up in China in late 2019.
Members of the WHO team have repeatedly emphasized that they will go into the investigation with an open mind and will not rule out any possible scenarios.
Beijing
World Health Organization (WHO) experts visited a research centre in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Wednesday as part of their probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wuhan is where the virus was first thought to have crossed over from animals to humans, although China has disputed this. It soon spread to other parts of China and then worldwide.
The visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is considered a highlight of the experts’ investigation.
The laboratory is a leading institution under China’s Academy of Sciences and conducts research with coronaviruses from bats, which are suspected to be the source of the pandemic.
Peter Ben Embarek, the scientist leading the WHO team, told the Global Times newspaper that his team had visited the WIV and the institue’s lab, known as P4, on Wednesday.
Established in 1956, the WIV is home to China’s first biosafety laboratory where researchers study pathogens. The lab follows strict international standards, as do similar labs around the world.
It was also one of the designated agencies of the National Health Commission to submit the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus to the WHO on January 12, 2020, according to the report in the Global Times, a newspaper published by the Chinese government.
Conspiracy theories have circulated that the virus might have escaped from this lab, but international and Chinese experts have rejected this.
Those working at the lab said such allegations were “ridiculous” and “not even worth refuting,” the newspaper reported, citing sources.
A source close to the lab said it had never had a “hazardous event,” and rejected the suggestion that there had been no cellphone activitiy for three weeks in October 2019 in a high security section of the WIV, the paper reported.
The lab has been “ruthlessly smeared by some anti-China politicians, such as former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, as part of their long-term strategy to incite a Cold War-like confrontation with China, with no respect being given to science and facts,” the newspaper wrote.
There have also been unproven suspicions that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could have come from a lab accident with an artificially manipulated coronavirus.
But the majority of leading experts who have viewed the genetic data are agreed that the coronavirus that has spread across the world came about naturally.
Internationally renowned bat researcher Shi Zhengli, nicknamed “batwoman,” has already met with the WHO experts and held a presentation for them.
The search for the origins of the pathogen is politically sensitive, and China has lashed out against countries like Australia for demanding such an investigation.
Beijing appears to fear being blamed for the pandemic, which has killed more than 2.2 million people worldwide.
China’s propaganda apparatus in recent months has made efforts to cast doubt over whether the virus originated in the country at all, including by pointing to unconfirmed reports there could have been infections in other countries before they started cropping up in China in late 2019.
Members of the WHO team have repeatedly emphasized that they will go into the investigation with an open mind and will not rule out any possible scenarios.
