World Health Organization investigators on Wednesday visited Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which has been at the center of many theories about the origins of the coronavirus which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. WHO team member Peter Daszak said on Twitter that they had an extremely important meeting with a prominent virologist at WIV, Dr Shi Zhengli, also known as China’s ‘Bat Woman’ for her coronavirus research, who was among the first to isolate the novel coronavirus last year that causes COVID-19. Mr. Daszak said, they had frank and open discussion with the members at WIV and key questions were asked and answered.
As per media reports quoting Dr. Peter Daszak, WHO team is seeing new and valuable information which is expected to help them look at the right directions for this virus.” Dr. Daszak said, “If there are data that point towards any hypothesis, they will follow the data and they have not ruled out the possibility that the virus had escaped from a lab.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology became a focal point of the WHO team’s mission in China after a number of conspiracy theories suggested that the new coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, may have leaked from the secretive lab where thousands of coronavirus samples were collected and stored.
Most scientists, including Shi, reject the hypothesis of a lab leak. However, some experts speculate that a virus captured from the wild could have figured in lab experiments to test the risks of a human spillover and then escaped via an infected staff member. Chinese authorities have consistently denied such allegations of a possible lab leak and began to spread alternative theories that SARS-CoV-2 may have originated from other countries.
Following two weeks in quarantine, the WHO team that includes experts in veterinary medicine, virology, food safety and epidemiology from 10 nations has over the past six days visited hospitals, research institutes and a traditional wet market linked to many of the first cases.
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