Chinese experts appeal WHO to conduct COVID-19 study in more countries

Top-level Chinese experts called for the World Health Organization (WHO) to conduct similar field studies on the origins of the novel coronavirus in other countries, Global Times reported on Saturday.

"Wuhan is just the first stop," the experts told Global Times as they believe origin tracing is a continuous complex scientific question which requires international collaboration. These experts consist of a number of leading Chinese epidemiologists – including those close to the National Health Commission and Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Feng Duojia, president of the China Vaccine Industry Association, said the WHO should conduct virus-tracing work in other countries, as it is a global pandemic.

"Wuhan is just a stop for virus origin tracing, and those experts should not expect to find an answer here. Also, it is scientifically impossible, as there were cases found in other countries even before the outbreak in Wuhan was reported," Feng said.

The WHO team started their field trips from January 29 after two weeks of quarantine. They have visited two local markets and two hospitals in Wuhan,the epicenter of China's coronavirus outbreak.

They also spoke to relevant people, such as Chinese experts, local market managers, frontline medics, recovered patients and residents.

The team also visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which had been accused of leaking the coronavirus.

Vladimir Dedkov, one of the experts on the WHO team said the conditions of the market in Wuhan may have spread the coronavirus, but the virus could have originated from elsewhere. He also refuted the theory that the laboratory might leak the virus, saying "it is well organized. I do not know who criticized them, the laboratory is perfectly equipped. It is hard for me to imagine that something could have leaked from there."

"Any country that reported outbreaks in 2019 should be investigated," Lu Hongzhou, co-director of the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center at Fudan University and a member of the national COVID-19 treatment expert group, said in an interview with Global Times on Wednesday.

"They should set a timeline, according to which they can collect blood samples of patients dating back to 2019, especially those who suffered from pneumonia, to see if there's anything suspicious," said Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The coronavirus was detected in different countries months before an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, according to studies and media reports around the globe.

Based on current public reports, the coronavirus was discovered back in September 2019 in a blood sample in Italy, as well as in sewage in Brazil two months later.

Also, there are studies reporting more cases where samples containing coronavirus from throat swabs and sewage in Italy in December 2019. The U.S. reported over 100 blood samples suggesting COVID-19 infections in December 2019.

"The WHO experts need to follow those clues about the early cases to continue field studies in countries like Spain, Brazil, Italy and the U.S. And it's a scientific question that does not aim to target any country, or a blame game for political purposes," Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert at Peking University First Hospital, who went to Wuhan in the early stages of the outbreak, told the Global Times on Thursday.