WHO experts criticize the new crown "laboratory origin theory": to cater to political discourse of some countries
The Paper, reporter Nan Boyi
On June 18, Dominic Dwyer, a member of the WHO expert group who went to China in mid-January this year, to carry out the work of the global traceability of the new crown virus in China, wrote an article in the British "Guardian" that the new crown virus The origin of animals is logical, but it will still take years to find relevant evidence.
At the beginning of the article, Dwyer wrote that people are eager to find the source of the outbreak of the new crown, which has caused controversy, but remember to follow scientific advice.
Dwyer further expressed his view that the new crown originated from an animal.
Dwyer said that this judgment is an observation of almost all newly emerged human viruses in the past 50 years, including the "severe acute respiratory syndrome" that appeared in 2003 and the "Middle East respiratory syndrome" that appeared in 2012.
Dwyer believes that due to the ecological characteristics of bats, they play a special role and are related to the new crown virus, Ebola virus, Hendra virus and so on.
Despite this, Dwyer said it may still take several years to find relevant evidence.
Regarding the current rumored "laboratory origin theory," Dwyer pointed out that the spread of this hypothesis is accidental and deliberate, and it has even been supported by some national governments.
He believes that under the influence of popular culture such as film and television works, it is easier for ordinary people to understand this assumption.
At the same time, this assumption also caters to the political discourse of some countries.
Dwyer retorted that although humans have been accidentally infected with the virus in the laboratory, the probability is extremely low.
As far as the origin of the new crown is concerned, there is currently no evidence to support this conclusion.
He further explained that because of knowing the importance of bat viruses in new infections, laboratories all over the world are conducting research on bat viruses.
Previously, researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences submitted a paper on the preprint website BioRxiv, which showed that when tracking the origin of SARS-CoV-2 in bats, the research team had previously discovered RaTG13, which is related to SARS- The genome homology of CoV-2 is 96.2%, which is the closest genome to date, but it still shows only a weak binding affinity to HuACE2 (human angiotensin converting enzyme 2).
In this regard, Dwyer said that the RaTG13 discovered above is just a gene sequence and has not been cultivated in the laboratory.
Dwyer concluded at the end of the article that the World Health Organization stated that all hypotheses about the origin of the new crown are still under discussion. The more people argue about this issue, the longer it will take to complete the scientific research. At the same time, evidence collection must cross different disciplines (public health, animal health, plant health, and environment) and international borders. This is everyone's responsibility.