World no closer to answer on COVID origins despite WHO probe - expert

[snoop1130]

World no closer to answer on COVID origins despite WHO probe - expert

 

FILE PHOTO: A logo is pictured on the headquarters of the World Health Orgnaization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, June 25, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

 

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Despite a high-profile visit to China by a team of international experts in January, the world is no closer to knowing the origins of COVID-19, according to one of the authors of an open letter calling for a new investigation into the pandemic.

 

"At this point we are no further advanced than we were a year ago," said Nikolai Petrovsky, an expert in vaccines at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and one of 26 global experts who signed the open letter, published on Thursday.

 

In January, a team of scientists picked by the World Health Organization (WHO) visited hospitals and research institutes in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the coronavirus was identified, in search of clues about the origins of COVID-19.

 

But the mission has come under fire, with critics accusing the WHO of relying too much on politically compromised Chinese fieldwork and data.

 

Team members also said China was reluctant to share vital data that could show COVID-19 was circulating months earlier than first recognised.

 

The open letter said the WHO mission "did not have the mandate, the independence, or the necessary accesses to carry out a full and unrestricted investigation" into all theories about the origins of COVID-19.

 

"All possibilities remain on the table and I have yet to see a single piece of independent scientific data that rules out any of them," said Petrovsky.

 

At a press briefing to mark the end of the WHO visit to Wuhan, mission head Peter Ben Embarek appeared to rule out the possibility that the virus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan.

 

But Petrovsky said it "doesn't make any sense" to rule any possibility out, and said the aim of the open letter was "to get an acknowledgement globally that no one has yet identified the source of the virus and we need to keep searching."

 

"We need an open mind and if we close down some avenues because they are considered too sensitive, that is not how science operates," he said.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-05

 

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[Scott]

Trolling meme removed.  This is a discussion forum, continue trolling and face a suspension.

 

[Scott]

Troll post removed.

 

[Kinnock]

Phase 1 - use power and influence to  neuter the WHO investigation

 

Phase 2 - sow the seeds of an origin in SE Asia

 

Phase 3 - claim it was not China's fault at all.

 

Have to be impressed by the planning and implementation of the Chinese Government. 

[Tug]

Imo it doesent really matter as long as it wasent intentional it’s really all about how we deal with it that counts 

[Geoffggi]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Despite a high-profile visit to China by a team of international experts in January, the world is no closer to knowing the origins of COVID-19, according to one of the authors of an open letter calling for a new investigation into the pandemic.

Surely they did not expect to be admitted to China unless the government there had everything under control ......................LOL

[vandeventer]

8 hours ago, Kinnock said:

Phase 1 - use power and influence to  neuter the WHO investigation

 

Phase 2 - sow the seeds of an origin in SE Asia

 

Phase 3 - claim it was not China's fault at all.

 

Have to be impressed by the planning and implementation of the Chinese Government. 

The WHOLE WORLD knows where the virus came from maybe someone should tell WHO!!!

Edited March 6, 2021 by vandeventer

[mrmicbkktxl]

Great,boss of the WHO is from Ethopia.Ethopia is under chinese control.I'm not a Trump fan but he did the right thing leaving the WHO

[Kerryd]

57 minutes ago, mrmicbkktxl said:

Great,boss of the WHO is from Ethopia.Ethopia is under chinese control.I'm not a Trump fan but he did the right thing leaving the WHO

The head of the WHO is not even a doctor and his appointment to that position only happened because the Chinese pushed for it. There was a petition over a year ago calling for his removal over his actions/comments early on in the crisis (where he seemed to be going out of his way to shield China from any suspicion).

[PatOngo]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

"to get an acknowledgement globally that no one has yet identified the source of the virus and we need to keep searching."

Oh, how diplomatic! Time to extract your heads from your butts and have a dose of reality!

[PatOngo]

16 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

But the mission has come under fire, with critics accusing the WHO of relying too much on politically compromised Chinese fieldwork and data.

It's ok to kill 2.5 million people and get away with it, unpunished!

[Kerryd]

Personally, I think the virus was definitely created in a lab, the result of years of research into coronaviruses and no doubt 10s of thousands of experiments in the 3 labs in the Wuhan area that were all doing coronavirus research at the time.
I think it was accidentally released, probably by someone who didn't even know they were infected.

Consider that, before "covid-19", coronaviruses were not considered especially dangerous because they didn't have the ability to jump from animals to humans. As a result, the procedures for handling those viruses are not as strict as they are for things like Ebola. Coronavirus were studied in "level 2" facilities and the only protective equipment the scientists had to wear was gloves and a face shield.

It was noted in one report over a year ago that a researcher in one of those labs had recorded an instant where he was been urinated on by an infected bat in the lab and his response was to self-isolate for 2 weeks and that was it. No "official" report or follow up medical inspections because, again, it wasn't thought that the virus could infect humans.

I suspect that a researcher in one of those labs, where they were known to be trying to combine different viruses and studying transmission methods, was infected, most likely without realizing it and then visited the wet market.
(One of the labs is located only a couple hundred meters from the market identified as where most of the initial patients were likely infected (remember, they originally tried to claim the outbreak happened from people buying live bats at that market, taking them home, cooking and eating them.)

As we know, it is quite possible for someone to be infected with the virus and not know it or show any symptoms, but apparently still capable of infecting other people.

An infected lab researcher unknowingly spreading a a lab created virus that no one thought could infect humans is a lot more likely scenario than some infected bats pissing on some infected pangolins and then having the 2 different types of the virus almost instantly mutating into a new type, then mutating again in order to be able to infect humans, then mutating again to be able to be transmitted through the air, all within a few weeks.

But there are those who think that is how it probably happened because the idea that labs researching these viruses for years and years would never be able to create something like this.

[Isaan sailor]

Until the Chinese government agrees to pay the world reparations--I shall continue to believe the COVID-19 virus came from a Wuhan lab.

[Phoenix Rising]

26 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

Until the Chinese government agrees to pay the world reparations--I shall continue to believe the COVID-19 virus came from a Wuhan lab.

Let me see if I got this straight; You will continue to believe that the Covid-19 virus came from a Wuhan lab until China pays reparations, and at that time you will not believe it anymore???

Edited March 6, 2021 by Phoenix Rising

[nobodysfriend]

11 hours ago, Tug said:

Imo it doesent really matter as long as it wasent intentional it’s really all about how we deal with it that counts 

To discover the origins is very important to avoid future , similar , outbreaks .

[AlfHuy]

3 hours ago, mrmicbkktxl said:

Great,boss of the WHO is from Ethopia.Ethopia is under chinese control.I'm not a Trump fan but he did the right thing leaving the WHO

And Biden will rejoin.

[Isaan sailor]

1 hour ago, Phoenix Rising said:

Let me see if I got this straight; You will continue to believe that the Covid-19 virus came from a Wuhan lab until China pays reparations, and at that time you will not believe it anymore???

You got that right.  Pay me and everyone for the human losses, sickness, suffering, broken economies,  I think about a million USD should do it for me personally.  In return, I shall no longer hold China liable, since they would have paid their liability off.

[Phoenix Rising]

1 hour ago, AlfHuy said:

And Biden will rejoin.

Yes, thankfully the grownups are back in the WH.

[ukrules]

1 hour ago, nobodysfriend said:

To discover the origins is very important to avoid future , similar , outbreaks .

 

It came from a bat. The route it took from bat to human is not known but the recent origin is pretty much understood.

 

The technology and know how to 'mine' bats for viruses is more available than ever before. They are a huge reservoir for many different viruses.

 

It is odd that the first outbreak happened in an urban center in the middle of China.

 

Talk of people eating bats is misdirection people were in hospital with COVID in Wuhan more than a month before the market outbreak, in November 2019.

 

 

[placeholder]

6 hours ago, vandeventer said:

The WHOLE WORLD knows where the virus came from maybe someone should tell WHO!!!

Wow! Finally, the spokesman who speaks for the WHOLE WORLD has been revealed. Well, given that you are still an anonymous poster, I guess "halfway revealed" is more accurate. Anyway, I've always suspected that most scientists and those who listen to them are extraterrestrials. Thanks for confirming it.

[Scott]

Troll post reported and removed.

 

[Isaan sailor]

The evidence points to a Wuhan lab as the source of the virus. But sure, it may have come from the local wet market.  Either way, it came from China, and neither the WHO nor the CCP cares to clarify.  Let that sink in.

[Scott]

When they talk about where the virus originated, I think they are speaking about more than just geography.   Most scientists have tossed out the idea that it was man-made.  They have made that elimination on the basis of the structure of the virus.   Like most good scientific thoughts, they have not eliminated the laboratory produced theory, but find it very unlikely.  

 

Finding the location may be helpful, but what they want to discover is what is the natural host animal where it survives and then how did it cross the species barrier?  Did it infect an intermediary species before jumping to humans?  

[tgw]

I think the "probe" in China was just a PR show, it's simply not possible to do any meaningful work in such a short time and limited access.

 

there are many thoughts to explore around this virus.

 

one of the thoughts I had was whether this is the first time such a virus suddenly appears, or if it is the first we became aware of. would this type of virus have been noticed in the 1930ies, 1850ies or have been dismissed as a bad flu?

 

then I thought that the virus outbreak could indeed have originated in a lab without necessarily be man-made. labs routinely collect viruses to study or weaponize them, but such an unalterated virus could have contaminated a worker there and then spread.

 

 

[placeholder]

21 hours ago, mrmicbkktxl said:

Great,boss of the WHO is from Ethopia.Ethopia is under chinese control.I'm not a Trump fan but he did the right thing leaving the WHO

Nonsense. Until the recent civil strife broke out, Ethiopia was very skillfully playing the West against China. 

How an African state learned to play the West off China for billions

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/07/ethiopia-china-west-power-competition-110766swarra

 

[Phoenix Rising]

16 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

The evidence points to a Wuhan lab as the source of the virus. But sure, it may have come from the local wet market.  Either way, it came from China, and neither the WHO nor the CCP cares to clarify.  Let that sink in.

The evidence does not point to that (see Scott's post following yours) but let's say it came from the Wuhan wet market. Should China then pay reparations to the whole world? Should Guinea pay reparations for the latest Ebola outbreak? Should the US pay reparations for the Spanish Flu (that, despite the name, very possibly originated in the US)? What about the next annual flu? Should the country where it originated pay reparations to the whole world? 

Edited March 7, 2021 by Phoenix Rising

[placeholder]

12 hours ago, tgw said:

I think the "probe" in China was just a PR show, it's simply not possible to do any meaningful work in such a short time and limited access.

 

there are many thoughts to explore around this virus.

 

one of the thoughts I had was whether this is the first time such a virus suddenly appears, or if it is the first we became aware of. would this type of virus have been noticed in the 1930ies, 1850ies or have been dismissed as a bad flu?

Viruses weren't known to be the cause of influenza until some time after the Spanish Flu had come and gone. The structure of DNA & RNA wasn't decoded until the 1950's So I don't see how researchers could have differentiated flu viruses from Covid viruses given the similarity of many of the symptoms. 

Come to think of it, there are plenty of posters on Thaivisa.com who still can't accept that the two are different.