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A team of experts appointed by the @WHO completed its 28-day mission to the Chinese city of Wuhan this week seeking clues about the origins of COVID-19. The following looks at their findings ⬇️ https://t.co/MGtuYplC0k pic.twitter.com/ZwNfoVNAxq
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2021
1️⃣ In the first, a single person was exposed to SARS-CoV-2 through direct contact with the host species, the horseshoe bat. The virus could have been circulating in humans for a while before making its breakthrough in heavily populated Wuhan pic.twitter.com/trXdp8HkIH
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2021
3️⃣ A third possibility is that COVID-19 originated under the first or second scenarios and was then transmitted via cold chain products. Chinese experts have attributed later COVID-19 clusters to imported frozen food pic.twitter.com/o1JCo9za0G
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2021
When did the outbreak begin?
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2021
The experts said that while it was unlikely there were large-scale outbreaks in Wuhan or elsewhere in China before December 2019, they do not rule out that it was circulating in other regions pic.twitter.com/popPJ7hvLZ
Marion Koopmans, another member of the expert team, said wildlife on sale in the Huanan seafood market could be traced to regions that contain bat habitats known to harbor viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 pic.twitter.com/7WVNMPgfNb
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2021
Liang Wannian said that there was still insufficient evidence to determine how the virus entered Huanan, but that it was clear it was circulating elsewhere in Wuhan at the same time pic.twitter.com/piOgbREH1x
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2021
By ruling out the lab leak and accepting that COVID-19 could have originated outside of China, the WHO team has not crossed any of Beijing’s lines. But the findings are unlikely to satisfy those who believe China is culpable and has covered up evidence pic.twitter.com/YuQobDjsft
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2021
What further research is required?
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 10, 2021
Ben Embarek said China needs now to find evidence that might prove the coronavirus was circulating much earlier than December 2019. He said blood bank samples would be a good place to start https://t.co/MGtuYplC0k
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