WHO team probing Covid origins in China to brief media

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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

 

An international team of experts wrapping up a month spent in China investigating the COVID-19 pandemic's origins will brief the media in Wuhan on Tuesday, the WHO announced.

 

"The international team working to understand the origins of the COVID-19 virus is completing its four weeks' stay in Wuhan, China and together with their Chinese colleagues will participate in a press conference," the World Health Organization said Monday.

 

The briefing, at 4:00pm local time (0800 GMT) at a hotel in the city, will be live-streamed in English on the UN health agency's digital and social media platforms.

 

The first COVID-19 cases were detected in Wuhan in December 2019.

 

Scientists think the disease—which has gone on to kill more than 2.3 million people worldwide—originated in bats and could have been transmitted to humans via another mammal.

 

But there are no definitive answers so far and top WHO officials have played down the chances of the sensitive investigation mission finding them on the first attempt.

 

They have said the Wuhan visit will likely throw up many more questions that need answering.

 

Since emerging from their initial 14-day hotel quarantine, the WHO experts have visited a number of high-profile sites linked to the pandemic origins, including a seafood market where people were first found falling ill.

 

A trip last Wednesday to the Wuhan Institute of Virology was one of the highest-profile events on the agenda due to the controversial theory it might have been the source of the pandemic.

 

Scientists at the laboratory conduct research on some of the world's most dangerous diseases, including strains of bat coronaviruses similar to COVID-19.

 

Speculation emerged early in the pandemic that the virus could have accidentally leaked from the lab in Wuhan, although there was no evidence provided to back up that theory.

 

Then-US president Donald Trump and his supporters seized on those rumours and amplified them with conspiracy theories that China had deliberately leaked the virus.

 

Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the WHO mission, said the inspectors had "very frank" discussions with Chinese scientists about the source of the pandemic—including theories that it leaked from the laboratory, he told AFP last Thursday.

 

While he did not identify specific theories, Ben Embarek described some of them as irrational and insisted the investigators would not waste time chasing the wildest claims.

 

Source

[Nuclear Fallout]

Let's face it, the US, Russia, China, they ALL do research which is actually (still) permitted. If the research is scalable, then it is a different matter. The US are in a bad position, if China did it on purpose, then this is an act of war and they MUST send them a message in an understandable manner, not just a measurable response! If it was a purely popping up without State Assistance, then their own research is diminished and Fort Detrick and its satellites have to be reshaped as well as given a broader mandate. Personally, my money is on a scenario where China inadvertently had this little gizmo escape, perhaps even by one single person who went to the market. The US knows exactly, and I mean exactly what transpired, but do not want to confront China. If they would do so, the US would have to confront the anger of the American Public which would dictate to unleash hell.

 

We will see perhaps in 10 to 25 years what really happened. From my own experiences, the public isn't always ready for the truth!

 

However, if this was deliberate, then whoever made this decision to unleash the virus should be terminated with extreme prejudice! First I would send a "personal" message to this person stating he/she can run but not hide, then I would make the removal very spectacular, let it look like an internal cleansing. After such an event all parties involved would know that certain things come with a price!