Team to hunt for virus origin
WHO team plans trip to China next month to study samples
FALKENSEE, Germany — A German scientist who is part of a team of experts assembled by the World Health Organization to investigate the origins of the coronavirus said they plan to sift through samples and medical data from China to help determine where the bug first jumped from animals to humans and which species it came from.
The search for the source of the new coronavirus has sparked claims of cover-ups and fueled political tensions, particularly between the administration of President Donald Trump and Beijing.
Most researchers think that the virus, also known as SARS-COV-2, originated in animals in China, probably bats, and the WHO has put together a 10-person team to examine the science.
Mission member Fabian Leendertz, a biologist at Germany’s
Robert Koch Institute who specializes in emerging diseases, said that the goal is to gather data to be better prepared for possible future outbreaks.
“It’s really not about finding a guilty country,” Leendertz said. “It’s about trying to understand what happened and then see if based on those data, we can try to reduce the risk in the future.”
In an interview Tuesday, Leendertz said the team has begun discussions with scientists in China and expects to travel to the country next month. They probably will start in Wuhan, where the outbreak was first reported, but an itinerary hasn’t yet been set.
Leendertz, who was part of a previous mission to track down the origins of an Ebola outbreak in west Africa, said that while he “would love that to be an Indiana
Jones mission” with scientists conducting groundbreaking field work, “it’s more (…) a team effort with Chinese colleagues to help identify the necessary next steps and how to continue.”
One of the difficulties is that those who contract COVID-19 can display a wide range of symptoms similar to flu or other diseases, or no symptoms at all. That makes tracking the chain of infection much harder than with Ebola, which has clear and dramatic symptoms that people remember.
Leendertz said scientists would be looking to see whether stored medical samples from before the first known case provide evidence that the virus was circulating earlier than thought.
“Then to see where that track leads us, if it’s another city or if it stays in Wuhan or where that goes,” he said.