Chinese scientist suggested the origin of COVID-19 from humans

A new version of the origin of the coronavirus announced in the scientific world. A Chinese scientist has made the claim that COVID-19 may have originated from humans.

The genetic sequences of virus samples taken from Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market, thought to be the epicenter of the pandemic, were “nearly identical” to those obtained from patients infected with the coronavirus, suggesting that COVID-19 may have originated in humans, says Tong Yigan. from Beijing University of Chemical Technology.

As CNN notes, Tong Yigan, who spoke at a press conference held by the State Council of China regarding the study of the origin of the virus, said that more than 1,300 samples of environmental and frozen animals were taken from the market between January 2020 and March 2020. and the researchers isolated three strains of the virus from environmental samples.

The Chinese scientist also said that there is not yet sufficient evidence to support recent studies that suggested that raccoon dogs could be the source of the COVID-19 virus.

Speaking at the same event, China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researcher Zhou Lei called for global scientific collaboration to trace the origin of the virus, saying that the place where COVID-19 was first detected is not necessarily where it originated.

In the past, CNN recalls, China has been heavily criticized for blocking international investigations into the origins of the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) said recently that it still lacks key data from China about the start of the coronavirus outbreak, and the head of its emerging diseases program called the lack of relevant information “simply inexcusable.”

However, China has repeatedly stated that it is acting transparently and cooperating with the WHO.

The debate over the origin of the pandemic-causing coronavirus has recently been revived after an assessment last month by the US Department of Energy that it was most likely the result of some kind of laboratory incident. But the US agency also marked this version as a “low confidence” definition.

On Saturday, Zhou Lei dismissed the lab leak theory, saying it was a “highly unlikely” version.

Recall that in March, US President Joe Biden signed a law declassifying intelligence about the origin of COVID-19.

The so-called COVID-19 Origins Act of 2023, which was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives with unanimous support earlier last month, directs the Director of National Intelligence to declassify, within 90 days of entry into force, all information relating to potential links between China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID-19. The director must then present this information in a report to Congress.

In a statement, Biden said that he shares “the goal of Congress to release as much information about the origins as possible” and that he now plans to “declassify and share as much of this information as possible, in accordance with my constitutional authority to protect against disclosure of information.” that would be detrimental to national security.”

Some scientists and government agencies have theorized that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology unintentionally spread Covid-19 to people in the Chinese city where the virus first emerged, while others have insisted that the animal most likely transmitted the coronavirus to humans. .

The US intelligence community is divided over the origin of the pandemic. Thus, the Department of Energy and the FBI recently said that they are leaning towards the hypothesis of a leak from the laboratory. The US Department of Justice said it had low confidence in its estimate, while the FBI said its confidence level was moderate. Other agencies support the natural origin theory of the coronavirus.

Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence agencies believe that three workers at the Wuhan laboratory were hospitalized a month before the virus emerged.

As Politico noted in this regard, the conclusion that the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese laboratory would further exacerbate US-China relations, as well as undermine the credibility of leading scientists who defended the hypothesis of a natural origin of COVID-19.

The World Health Organization said both possibilities remain under consideration.