Scientists visit hospitals in Wuhan

WHO team probing initial virus response

WUHAN, China — Members of a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited on Saturday another Wuhan hospital that had treated early COVID-19 patients.

Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital was one of the first in the Chinese city to deal with patients in early 2020 suffering from a then-unknown virus and is a key part of the epidemiological history of the disease.

“Just back from visit at Jinyintan hospital, that specialized in infectious diseases and was designated for treatment of the first cases in Wuhan,” Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans said in a post on Twitter. “Stories quite similar to what I have heard from our ICU doctors.”

Zoologist Peter Daszak of the U.S. group EcoHealth Alliance, who is a member of the team, said in a tweet that the visit was an “important opportunity to talk directly” with medics who were fighting the virus at the critical time.

The team’s first face-to-face meetings with Chinese scientists took place on Friday before the experts who specialize in animal health, virology, food safety and epidemiology visited another early site of the outbreak, the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine

Hospital.

The Geneva-based WHO said late Thursday on Twitter that its team plans to visit hospitals, markets that were linked to many of the first cases, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and laboratories at facilities including the Wuhan Center for Disease Control.

“All hypotheses are on the table as the team follows the science in their work to understand the origins of the COVID19 virus,” WHO tweeted. It said the team had requested “detailed underlying data” and planned

to speak with early responders and some of the first patients.

The mission has become politically charged, as China seeks to avoid blame over its early response to the outbreak.

A single visit by scientists is unlikely to confirm the virus’s origins. Pinning down an outbreak’s animal reservoir is typically an exhaustive endeavor that takes years of research.

One possibility is that a wildlife poacher might have passed the virus to traders who carried it to Wuhan.

Ng Han Guan The Associated Press Security personnel move a barrier to clear the way for WHO team members as they leave a hospital after a field visit Saturday in Wuhan, China.