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Since the emergence of the new Corona virus at the end of December 2019, and until today, the series of surprises from Wuhan continues to emerge, especially after the arrival of the World Organization team. health in the cradle of the epidemic and the investigation. opened.
In new research conducted by investigators researching the origins of the outbreak in China, they found signs that the virus outbreak was much larger in Wuhan at that time than previously thought, causing them raced against the clock to access hundreds of thousands of the city’s blood samples that China has not yet allowed them to test.
The lead investigator for the World Health Organization mission, Peter Ben Embarek, explained in a lengthy interview with CNN that the mission found several signs of a wider spread in 2019, including the first origin where there were more than 12 strains of the virus in Wuhan. In December, the team confirmed after having had the opportunity to speak to the first patient who Chinese officials said carried the infection, an office worker in his 40s, and had no history of significant trip on December 8.
Spread before the known date
This information is extremely important, because according to the team, the slow emergence of more detailed data collected from the WHO trip to China may heighten concerns expressed by other scientists studying the origins of the disease that it could spread to China long before its first official appearance in mid-December.
Security personnel in plain clothes in front of the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention before the WHO team arrived on February 1.
Ambarick said the virus was spreading widely in Wuhan in December, which is a new discovery, adding that Chinese scientists provided the team with 174 cases of the coronavirus in Wuhan and surrounding areas in December 2019. This means that the disease could infect an estimated number. Over 1,000 people in the city that month.
Precious clues
He also explained that the team had expanded the type of genetic material of the virus they had examined from the earliest cases of coronavirus infection, explaining that this allowed them to examine partial genetic samples, instead of simply full samples, and from there they were able to collect 13 different genetic sequences of the Corona virus for the first time, as of December 2019.
Security personnel in plain clothes in front of the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention before the WHO team arrived on February 1.
The footage, if examined with larger data on patients in China in 2019, could provide valuable clues to the geography and timing of the outbreak prior to this period, which could be found at the seafood market in China. Huanan in Wuhan, which is believed to have played a role in the first spread of the virus, and elsewhere.
13 dynasties before December 2019!
Ambarek declined to draw any conclusions about what the 13 strains might mean for the disease history before December, but the discovery of many possible variants of the virus may indicate that it has been spreading for longer than this month alone, as some virologists previously suggested. This genetic material is likely to be the first physical evidence to emerge internationally to support such a theory, as changes in the genetic makeup of the virus are common and usually harmless, and occur over time when the disease is transmitted. and multiplied between humans or animals. .
From the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention
He also pointed out that there were around 200,000 samples available there, which are now secure and can be used for a new group of studies, noting that some other bioassay samples that might have proved useful during the Wuhan mission were not available to them. either, and pointed out that many samples were thrown away, after a few months or weeks, depending on the purpose for which you are taking them.
It is worth mentioning that China has always been committed to being transparent in the investigation of the World Health Organization, and the Chinese Embassy in America, in response to criticism by the United States on the need to give access to its earlier preliminary data, said what America has done in recent years has severely damaged international cooperation on Covid 19, amid reflections from Global Health to return to Wuhan to continue investigations.
However, the United States has expressed concern that Chinese authorities have not provided investigators with all the information or have intervened in some way.
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