WHO Study Says Covid Likely Spread From Bats to Humans Via Another Animal

The coronavirus probably spread from bats to humans via another animal, according to the long-awaited results of a joint World Health Organization-China study into the origins of Covid-19.

The most productive research would be to look for such an animal link, scientists said, after finding it improbable the virus resulted from a laboratory incident, according to a copy of the report obtained by Bloomberg News before its scheduled release Tuesday. Future studies should be broadened to investigate susceptible animal species in China and elsewhere.

The findings confirm what researchers said in mid-February at the conclusion of their four-week mission to Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the first Covid cases emerged at the end of 2019, and in subsequent interviews. Possible intermediate host species include mink, pangolins, rabbits, raccoon dogs and ferret badgers, the report said.

“It supports our current picture of the start of the pandemic,” said Joel Wertheim, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, who reviewed part of the report but didn’t take part in the research. “From what I’ve seen, there was nothing shocking and unexpected in there.”

The hunt for the virus’s origin has been shrouded in controversy since the start of the pandemic, with China criticized for delaying access to scientists and both Beijing and Washington pushing alternative theories about how Covid began. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday all hypotheses are on the table and warrant complete and further studies. The expert team will brief WHO member-states on Tuesday before releasing the report publicly and briefing the media.

The Associated Press published comments from the report earlier. It was conducted by a team made up of both international and Chinese experts. The WHO has repeatedly said the report’s conclusions are independent and belong to the authors.

While the search has become highly politicized, governments and scientists agree that deciphering the virus’s creation story is key to reducing the risk of future pandemics. The research was aimed at galvanizing efforts to trace the origin of the virus that touched off the worst pandemic in more than a century, as well as its route of transmission to humans and the possible role of an intermediate animal host.

A spillover from bats via another animal is the most likely scenario in the report, followed by direct spillover. Introduction through frozen food was deemed possible, and a laboratory accident considered extremely unlikely.

Samples from bats and other animals in China didn’t test positive for the pandemic virus. The researchers recommended tracing the origin of SARS-CoV-2 worldwide in farmed and wild animals species likely to harbor coronaviruses, such as ferret-badgers, civets, mink and raccoon dogs, especially in areas where little research has been undertaken and where animal viruses are most likely to spill over to people.

Of 174 Covid-19 cases detected in Wuhan in December 2019, more than half had spent time in one or more produce markets in the city prior to being infected, according to the report. The Huanan market in downtown Wuhan, where animals and animal products were sold to the public, was linked to many early cases -- though the researchers weren’t able to determine if it was the source of the initial transmission of the virus to humans or an amplifier of the early epidemic.

The market was identified early in the pandemic as a likely incubator of SARS-CoV-2, resembling the spawning in Guangdong province in 2002 of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS -- a bat-borne coronavirus that spread to civets and raccoon dogs before killing about 800 people.

Sales records showed 10 stalls at the Huanan market in late December sold animals or products from snakes, poultry, Sika deer, badgers, rabbits, bamboo rats, porcupines, hedgehogs, salamanders, giant salamanders, and crocodiles. Farmed wildlife were sourced from 10 provinces, including three where related coronaviruses have been found in bats.

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