Evidence shows Huanan market was a spreader; seeking origin should be done globally: experts
leads the WHO team, told the Global Times that although the Huanan market has been sealed off, the experts believe that there is still plenty to see and experience there. And they may possibly talk to vendors there.
Being sealed off for more than a year, what kind of information could the Huanan Seafood Market offer to the WHO expert team? Whether tracing the first batch of patients who had exposure to the market would shed light on the origin of the virus, or on how the virus jumped from animals to humans?
Now, it is shielded away from the outside with light blue barricades. Its previous signboard has been removed and a new door, which is hard to find, is closed all day.
At the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, some people thought the market was the “original” place where the virus jumped from animals to humans as wildlife animals were reportedly sold here, and many early patients were linked to it. Other conspiracy theories centering on the market were also spread.
However, subsequent investigations have shaken the hypothesis. Lu Hongzhou, an expert from the Public Health Clinical Center affiliated to Fudan University, was cited by Caijing magazine in November 2020 that Chinese scientists had found coronavirus-positive environment samples from the Huanan Seafood Market but did not isolate the virus from wild animals at the market, suggesting the market was a superspreader rather than the origin of the virus.
A vendor who used to sell frozen meat from Huanan told the Global Times “There was occasional selling of wild animals, but not prevalent.”
No bat has been sold in the market or eaten in Wuhan, he said, refuting rumors that the epidemic was caused by local residents eating bats.
What to see?
As the first place to spot cluster infections, the Huanan Seafood Market may offer the WHO team more information on the early patients and on whether these patients were domestically infected or from imported cases or items, said Jin Dongyan, a professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong.
“Hoping to find the coronavirus origin in Wuhan or in the Huanan market would be impossible as the US and the EU have different virus genome sequences with China. The mission should be conducted in various countries at the same time,” Yang Zhanqiu, a deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University, told the Global Times. “The Huanan Seafood Market may also offer some clues to the WHO team on the virus transmission pattern. But the animal origin of the virus is still unknown and needs efforts from global scientists.”
While WHO experts are working in Wuhan, scientists have found that bats that lived in a Cambodian cave in 2010 carried a pathogen that is “nearly identical” to the virus that causes COVID-19. Samples the scientists tested have been stored in a freezer at the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
No conclusion on the animal origin of the coronavirus has been made. Seeking virus origins is not easy, and needs the efforts of global scientists without political interference, Yang said.