Unable to trace the origin of Code 19, "this could happen again". | infodesk4n

The global outbreak of Code 19 has claimed 4 million lives so far, and scientific research into the origin of the outbreak is becoming increasingly controversial.

Although the outbreak is now ubiquitous, the disease is only 18 months old. And research into its beginnings began in 2020 by a team from the World Health Organization.

Questions about the research results turned into heated political debate.

Scientists investigating the outbreak have been charged with conspiracy and concealment, but no evidence has been provided.

However, 21 researchers are now trying to find out how the virus, which started with bats, was transmitted to humans.

"It's not true that we don't know where the virus comes from," said David Robertson, a professor of virology at the University of Glasgow. We don't know how it got to humans. "

It is widely accepted that the virus was transmitted to humans after being safely transmitted by wild bats, but knowing how, where and when it occurred is important in preventing future outbreaks.

There is no concrete evidence in this regard. No positive cod bats have been found, nor is there a "first" human infected with the disease.

This may never happen, but the authors of this report want to explain the available evidence and shed some light on their claims.

He has published the first draft of his own research, which has not yet been reviewed by other experts. And according to Professor Robertson, the key conclusion is that the biological properties of the virus are similar to those of other viruses in bats.

He said the global pandemic was similar to the first pandemic in 2003.

The virus was found in the best-selling animal, Palm Sewet. In subsequent years, scientists discovered closely related viruses in bats, and in 2017 an ancestor of the stork epidemic, the Horse Show, was found in bats.

The outbreak was eventually linked to the animal it came from. But according to Professor Robertson, the difference with the code is that we haven't found the batch type yet.

"But the link between the bat virus and the live market is there."

Many scientists agree that crowded and unhealthy markets, where live animals are sold, provide an environment conducive to animal-to-human disease. And in the 18 months leading up to the outbreak, according to a study, around 50,000 animals of 38 different species were sold in the markets of Wuhan.

Researchers say a natural mutation, possibly related to this animal trade, is the most plausible picture of the virus's origin.

The World Health Organization (WHO) team that visited Wuhan came to the same conclusion about a year ago. But some scientists have opposed the team's denial of the possibility of the virus accidentally escaping the lab.

The accusations have been made at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been investigating the presence of corona viruses in bats for over a decade.

Researchers in the new report note that none of these 19 codes were created or could have been created. But some scientists do not fully accept this conclusion.

Among these scientists is David Relman, a professor at Stanford University in the United States.

He told the News Agency: "I see this new report as a deliberate attempt to divert as much information as possible towards a very strong hypothesis, which is the natural transmission of the virus." But this relationship is not balanced and objective.

Professor Relman is one of the authors of a letter to the popular science journal Science in which senior scientists questioned the findings of a World Health Organization report and called for more research into the laboratory leak theory.

Scientists often disagree with each other and this is part of the scientific process. And publishing evidence-based views in scientific journals is an effective platform for evidence-based dissent.

But the debate over animal-to-human transmission or laboratory leaks has now gone beyond scientific disagreement.

Peter Deszc, who led the WHO team in February 2020, was accused of attempting to silence the lab leak debate when he, along with 26 other authors, appeared in The Lancet Medical Journal. A statement released that read: "We are united in condemning the conspiratorial assumptions that Code 19 did not originate naturally."

And many scientists did not trust the information provided by the Chinese authorities to the research team.

A year later, US President Joe Biden ordered his intelligence agency to "duplicate" the investigation into the launch of Code 19, including the idea that it was leaked from a lab.

At the same time, some scientists have been targeted, especially on social media, who have publicly rejected the hypothesis of a laboratory leak.

Evidence points to a natural transition from animals to humans, says a scientist who has been working on the evolutionary stages of the virus since its inception.

He said they hated him so much that he even thought about leaving the investigation department.

The investigators did not want to be named because they were afraid of further harassment. He said: "My emails have been hacked, emails have been sent to try to catch me, he claims I fabricated the data and systematically covered up the conspiracy. Some people hate it even more. It all affects you and you begin to question your worth.

The debate has heated up in the last year, but no new evidence has emerged to support the leak from the lab.

And more importantly, almost all scientists agree on the importance of faster research into the origin of the virus.

'What we don't need at this point is for scientists to insist on their preferred justification in the absence of new and robust data,' says Professor Relman.

The stork was not found in any animal. So calm down and ask for proper investigation.

Professor Stuart Neal of King's College London is the co-author of this new report. He points out that these requests don't necessarily lead to the results everyone is looking for.

"We need the cooperation of the Chinese authorities. And they should be much clearer about what they know about the beginning of the Wuhan epidemic at the end of 2019.

"Only then will it be clear how the virus got to Wuhan and where it was before." It is the second largest corona virus to reach humans from bats in China in 20 years, and it could happen again if we don't address the problem.