Virus ‘is unlikely to have come from lab’
THE virus which causes Covid-19 is “extremely unlikely” to have entered the human population as a result of a laboratory-related incident, global health leaders have said.
Sars-cov-2 “may have originated from zoonotic transmission”, meaning it passed from animals to humans, a team of experts from China and the World Health Organisation (WHO) concluded.
Experts said the early findings indicate that the virus was introduced to humans through an “intermediary host”, which means it jumps from one species to another, and then jumps from the second species to humans.
But the “reservoir hosts” – the animals in which the virus originated – remain to be identified, they told a press conference.
The first probable case of the virus investigated by the team was on December 8 2019.
This case did not have any links to the animal market which was initially thought to be where the virus
“spillover” from animals to humans occurred.
China has faced claims that the Wuhan Institute of Virology could be the suspected source of the Covid-19 virus.
Dr Peter Ben Embarek, leader of the WHO team investigating the origins of the virus in Wuhan, said: “The findings suggest lab incident hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus into the human population.”
Investigators looked at hypotheses when examining possible origins of the virus:
- Direct transmission from an animal species into the human population.
- The introduction of the virus from an intermediary host species through another animal species “potentially closer to humans” where the virus could adapt, circulate and then jump to humans.
- The food chain, in particular the four the potential for frozen products acting as a “surface” for the transmission of the virus.
- A lab-related incident. Dr Embarek said: “Initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host is the most likely pathway and one that we will require more studies and more specific targeted research.”
When asked about the possibility of a lab incident, he said: “Nowhere previously was this particular virus researched, or identified, or known.
“There had been no publication, no reports of this virus or another virus extremely closely linked to this being worked with in any other laboratory in the world.”
WHO experts have been probing the origins of the virus in the city.
Meanwhile, there is no evidence that the virus was present in Wuhan before December 2019, they said.
The experts added that they “don’t know” the exact role of Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the origin of the virus.