LET FACTS SPEAK

By Wen Qing

During talks about the ori- gin tracing of COVID-19， Mike Ryan， Executive Director of the World Health Organizations （WHO） Health Emergencies Program， cited the study on the origins of the Ebola outbreak. “It took us years and years to even begin to understand the origin of Ebola，” he said on February 9， 2020， after an international expert team wrapped up its investigation in Wuhan， where the first COVID-19 cases in China were reported. Even to this day， many unknowns on how the Ebola outbreak started persisted， he added.

Like Ebola， it is difficult to trace the origins of many such infectious diseases. AIDS were first recognized in 1981， but 40 years have passed since then and humanity still doesnt know exactly where it hailed from. Severe acute respiratory syndrome wreaked havoc in 2003， and people still havent figured out how it started， in spite of the many research efforts made.

“The point at which you see the flame is never usually the point where the fire starts，” Ryan said.“Your first job is to put out the flames and get the epidemic under control.”

As the world is in the throes of the novel coronavirus and its variants， experts believe that collaboration in the fight against the pandemic is more urgent and crucial than continuing the politically driven origin tracing.

Natural origin

“The suspicion that SARS-CoV-2 （the virus that causes COVID-19） might have a laboratory origin stems from the coincidence that it was first detected in a city that houses a major virological laboratory that studies coronaviruses，” wrote a recently published paper entitled The Origins of SARS-CoV-2： A Critical Review.

“The most parsimonious explanation for the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is a zoonotic event. There is currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has a laboratory origin，” the paper， written by 21 renowned virologists and evolutionary biologists， further read.

Since the start of the pandemic， most scientists have insisted that the virus originated in nature itself.

“When you are dealing with a new virus， such as this one， you can expect the appearance of many conspiracy theories in the media and social networks. But I can say that all the evidence now available indicates that this virus is of animal origin，” WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said at a briefing in Geneva on April 21， 2020. She also emphasized that the novel coronavirus was not the result of laboratory-induced manipulation.

According to scientists， if the virus is synthesized inside a lab it will show a series of known elements within its genome sequence； this is not the case with the new coronavirus.