Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Image courtesy : Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market on 31 December 2019. Courtesy of China News Service.
On 25 May 2020, Gao Fu, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Director of the China National Center for Disease Prevention and Control (China CDC), updated the pro-China Communist Party media Hong Kong Phoenix TV on the progress of SARS-CoV-2 tracing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the actual result of the investigation in the Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
Gao Fu said that in early January 2019, he went to Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market to collect specimens with the team members from China CDC, Wuhan Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Wuhan Institute of Viology and Harbin Veterinary Research Institute.
He has declared that SARS-CoV-2 is not detected in the animal samples taken back but the virus is detected in environmental samples including sewer wastewater around the market. Wild bats and pangolins are not on sale in the market. This confirms that the seafood wholesale market is the victim of both the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and CGTN initial report on the outbreak.
On 27 January 2020, CCP media CGTN reported according to the China CDC, "The virus was confirmed to have come from the wildlife sold at the market."
At that time, China CDC told CGTN that these virus-affected samples were found among 22 stalls and one garbage truck in the market. 93.9% of the samples were located in the south part of the seafood market where illegal wildlife trade was active.
The news on 27 January 2020 soon led to a ban on wild life trade in the PRC. In May 2020, Wuhan officially banned wild animal trading and businesses. The ban has contributed to the recession and losses of livelihood in the populous country.
No virus detected in animal samples from South China Seafood Market
On the initial media report on Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market, Gao Fu attempted to clarify and defend China CDC, "Originally, we speculated that the seafood market may have viruses, but now it seems that the seafood market itself is also a victim unit, and the virus has existed before then."
Difficulties in identifying intermediate host, citing civet cat is not the intermediate host of SARS-CoV as an example
Image : Gao Fu in the interview with Hong Kong Phoenix TV. Web Screenshot.
Gao Fu emphasized that scientists should be given time to do professional research. In terms of traceability of SARS-CoV-2, the CCP government and scientists have been working hard to carry out related work.
SARS-CoV-2 has the characteristics of cross-species transmission. However, as of now, the intermediate host of the novel coronavirus has not been found.
Gao Fu said, "We speculated initially that SARS-CoV-2 must have come from the bat, but we think the derivation should not directly infect people from the bat. We have been looking for its intermediate host but it has not been found. The virus has overturned a lot of cognition. We no longer can presume based on our knowledge accumulation."
Gao Fu added that the professional research and source tracing process is very complicated and takes time. He raised the example of the SARS-CoV.
In 2003, the civet cat was initially identified as the intermediate host of the SARS virus and international media reported the civet cat as the intermediate host of SARS-CoV. However, later research found that the civet cat was not an intermediate host, but an amplifier, which expanded the spread of SARS.
Hope for international cooperation in virus tracing work
Gao Fu also emphasized that PRC is willing to cooperate with countries around the world under the framework of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the issue of and carrying out virus tracing work. The frequent reprimands by Trump, Pompeo and the Five Eyes Alliance on the Communist Party of China have also make SARS-CoV-2 tracing by China CDC more important and urgent.
His comments thus suggest the possibility of international cooperation in the virus tracing work before the pandemic ends earliest in 2021 or in two to three years' time.
Refs:
Li Jing, Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market may be the victim! China CDC has found this clue, US China Press, http://www.uschinapress.com/2020/0525/1185664.shtml
CGTN, Experts confirm Wuhan seafood market was source of novel coronavirus, https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-27/Experts-confirm-Wuhan-seafood-market-was-source-of-novel-coronavirus--NAHPUtsPgA/index.html
CGTN, Official : Wuhan seafood market may be the victim of the coronavirus, https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-26/Official-Wuhan-seafood-market-may-be-the-victim-of-the-coronavirus--QNVxtMlFbW/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0y8rnG_Y8w1VhrSTl2ywOGsxiDyaUqdgGjc24AwJDdJox7pOsszVvrK-E
Robert F. Garry etal., The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, Nature Medicine,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9?fbclid=IwAR0-jEm3MtlM9unKos70R8zSlORyB4fAcBDCG23PHW0n4HpZmm355Xjv7fA
See also the experts' video comments on Gao Fu's latest statements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQA7dCqG8Yc
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Image courtesy : Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market on 31 December 2019. Courtesy of China News Service.
On 25 May 2020, Gao Fu, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Director of the China National Center for Disease Prevention and Control (China CDC), updated the pro-China Communist Party media Hong Kong Phoenix TV on the progress of SARS-CoV-2 tracing in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the actual result of the investigation in the Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
Gao Fu said that in early January 2019, he went to Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market to collect specimens with the team members from China CDC, Wuhan Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Wuhan Institute of Viology and Harbin Veterinary Research Institute.
He has declared that SARS-CoV-2 is not detected in the animal samples taken back but the virus is detected in environmental samples including sewer wastewater around the market. Wild bats and pangolins are not on sale in the market. This confirms that the seafood wholesale market is the victim of both the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and CGTN initial report on the outbreak.
On 27 January 2020, CCP media CGTN reported according to the China CDC, "The virus was confirmed to have come from the wildlife sold at the market."
At that time, China CDC told CGTN that these virus-affected samples were found among 22 stalls and one garbage truck in the market. 93.9% of the samples were located in the south part of the seafood market where illegal wildlife trade was active.
The news on 27 January 2020 soon led to a ban on wild life trade in the PRC. In May 2020, Wuhan officially banned wild animal trading and businesses. The ban has contributed to the recession and losses of livelihood in the populous country.
No virus detected in animal samples from South China Seafood Market
On the initial media report on Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market, Gao Fu attempted to clarify and defend China CDC, "Originally, we speculated that the seafood market may have viruses, but now it seems that the seafood market itself is also a victim unit, and the virus has existed before then."
Gao's latest remark is consistent with other scientists, for example, Dr. Robert Garry, a U.S. scientist and a professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine.
The virus entered the market
Dr Garry told CGTN in an exclusive interview that although some of the early cases were linked to the seafood market in Wuhan, others, including earlier ones, were not. He said, "We don't know where SARS-CoV-2 came from. The spark landed in Wuhan, but we don't know where the spark came from."
Dr Garry who is a co-author of a widely recognized study, The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, said, "The virus came into the market not from the market."
In that study, Dr. Garry explained that the pandemic may have been triggered by a mutation in surface proteins of the virus. It is possible that a less severe version of the illness had been circulating through the population in the People's Republic of China for years, perhaps even decades, before developing into an outbreak and finally the pandemic.
He wrote in the thesis, "It is possible that a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 jumped into humans, acquiring the genomic features described above through adaptation during undetected human-to-human transmission. Once acquired, these adaptations would enable the pandemic to take off and produce a sufficiently large cluster of cases to trigger the surveillance system that detected it."Difficulties in identifying intermediate host, citing civet cat is not the intermediate host of SARS-CoV as an example
Image : Gao Fu in the interview with Hong Kong Phoenix TV. Web Screenshot.
Gao Fu emphasized that scientists should be given time to do professional research. In terms of traceability of SARS-CoV-2, the CCP government and scientists have been working hard to carry out related work.
SARS-CoV-2 has the characteristics of cross-species transmission. However, as of now, the intermediate host of the novel coronavirus has not been found.
Gao Fu said, "We speculated initially that SARS-CoV-2 must have come from the bat, but we think the derivation should not directly infect people from the bat. We have been looking for its intermediate host but it has not been found. The virus has overturned a lot of cognition. We no longer can presume based on our knowledge accumulation."
Gao Fu added that the professional research and source tracing process is very complicated and takes time. He raised the example of the SARS-CoV.
In 2003, the civet cat was initially identified as the intermediate host of the SARS virus and international media reported the civet cat as the intermediate host of SARS-CoV. However, later research found that the civet cat was not an intermediate host, but an amplifier, which expanded the spread of SARS.
Hope for international cooperation in virus tracing work
Gao Fu also emphasized that PRC is willing to cooperate with countries around the world under the framework of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the issue of and carrying out virus tracing work. The frequent reprimands by Trump, Pompeo and the Five Eyes Alliance on the Communist Party of China have also make SARS-CoV-2 tracing by China CDC more important and urgent.
His comments thus suggest the possibility of international cooperation in the virus tracing work before the pandemic ends earliest in 2021 or in two to three years' time.
Refs:
Li Jing, Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market may be the victim! China CDC has found this clue, US China Press, http://www.uschinapress.com/2020/0525/1185664.shtml
CGTN, Experts confirm Wuhan seafood market was source of novel coronavirus, https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-27/Experts-confirm-Wuhan-seafood-market-was-source-of-novel-coronavirus--NAHPUtsPgA/index.html
CGTN, Official : Wuhan seafood market may be the victim of the coronavirus, https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-26/Official-Wuhan-seafood-market-may-be-the-victim-of-the-coronavirus--QNVxtMlFbW/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0y8rnG_Y8w1VhrSTl2ywOGsxiDyaUqdgGjc24AwJDdJox7pOsszVvrK-E
Robert F. Garry etal., The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2, Nature Medicine,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9?fbclid=IwAR0-jEm3MtlM9unKos70R8zSlORyB4fAcBDCG23PHW0n4HpZmm355Xjv7fA
See also the experts' video comments on Gao Fu's latest statements:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQA7dCqG8Yc
No comments:
Post a Comment