Reporter : Gu Fan / Editor : Li Jia / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/02/21/a103059054.html / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
Image : On 15 April 2020, Wuhan Baishazhou Seafood Market. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
The World Health Organization's preliminary report on the origin of SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus) will recommend more extensive tracking on the first known covid (short for COVID-19, novel coronavirus pneumonia) patient in Wuhan and nearly ten merchants in the Huanan Seafood Market supply chain. This market was once considered the birthplace of the covid outbreak.
US National Security Adviser Sullivan said on Sunday (21 February 2021) that the US government is concerned about the data provided by the CCP to the WHO on the origin of the CCP virus pandemic.
"We need a credible, open and transparent international investigation led by the World Health Organization." Sullivan said in an interview with CBS.
Sullivan said that the Biden administration has questions about a report on the origin of the epidemic to be released by the WHO.
“We don’t believe that the CCP has provided enough raw data on how this epidemic started in China and eventually spread throughout the world.” He said, “and we believe that both the WHO and the CCP should come forward on this issue".
Investigators familiar with the draft WHO report told CNN that the team recommended tracking two key investigative leads.
First, they asked for further research on the contact history of Wuhan patients on 8 December 2019. This is the first case of novel coronavirus pneumonia confirmed by a Chinese scientist and a WHO team. The patient's identity has not been disclosed, but according to WHO investigators, the patient is an office worker in his forties who has no history of travel or contact with foreign countries and lives with his wife and children.
Peter Daszak, a member of the 17-member WHO team and chairman of the EcoHealth Alliance, a US non-profit organization that tracks viruses in animals, said that the investigation determined that the parents of the first patient were likely to have been to a wildlife market in Wuhan.
Daszak said that the patient met with the WHO team and added at the end of the meeting that his parents had been to "a local wet market in Wuhan", but not the Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market.
Daszak said that the WHO team was not informed of the details of the market during the visit, which may sell animals or agricultural products infected with the Chinese Communist Party virus (CCP virus).
The first patient also told the WHO, "Other markets in Wuhan-not just the Huanan market-are selling wild animal products." Daszak believes that this information is very important.
Daszak said that when investigating the case, Chinese scientists assured the WHO team that the patient’s parents tested negative but China did not seem to trace their parents’ contacts in the market.
According to Daszak, the patient has no known connection with the Huanan Seafood Market. “He leads a typical city life and does not participate in crowded sports activities. His main hobby is surfing the Internet.”
Western scientists expressed surprise and even doubt that the CCP did not track the contact history of the first patient and the supply chain of the Huanan market.
Professor Maureen Miller, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Columbia University, said, “This research has not yet been completed. It is incredible and unrealistic because they have world-class scientists there and they have invested in the past 20 years. technology."
Miller said that the patient's infection on 8 December 2019 indicated that there had been community transmission of the virus in December. She pointed out that “in the short and long term, trying to conceal the fact that the virus started in China and exported to all parts of the world is not good for China.”
Professor Huang Yanzhong, a senior researcher on global health issues of the US Council on Foreign Relations, said that it is surprising that the CCP “has not invested in investigating these two important clues.” "They have first-class scientists, and they are more knowledgeable than most people in recognizing the importance of this information."
According to investigators familiar with the draft report, the WHO team will also recommend an immediate investigation into the supply chain of the Huanan Seafood Market in the preliminary report to be submitted next week.
Daszak said that Chinese scientists provided the WHO with a list of farms in southern provinces such as Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong, which provide wild animals to the Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market.
Daszak told CNN that the WHO would recommend visiting those farms, conducting tests on farmers, interviewing and testing relatives, and finding out if there is any evidence that there was an outbreak before Wuhan.
Daszak said that Chinese scientists have inspected wildlife farms in central Hubei and surrounding provinces, as well as some "upstream suppliers" but they are not the "southern farms" that he and the WHO delegation are most interested in.
Testing the supply chain will allow scientists to see which animals may spread the virus between them before it infects humans. Daszak said that there may be a spillover in November or even October of 2019. He refers to the spread of viruses from one species to another.
These farms are likely to be a clear way to trace the source of SARS-CoV-2. Daszak said, “We now know that the supply of wild animals raised on farms in Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong enters the South China market. We already have evidence, we already have data".
"We need to find out what products those farms are still selling." He was referring to whether they are still selling animals that may be infected with the SARS coronavirus, including SARS-CoV-2? Animals including rabbits, ferret badgers and civet cats?
Daszak said that experts can investigate by interviewing farmers. He realized that the CCP might threaten to silence insiders but he encouraged farmers not to be afraid, "They have nothing to lose. They will close their business and continue their lives. There is nothing illegal about what they are doing."
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