By TNV Desk
COVID-19 is the respiratory illness caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 i.e. severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. It all started in Wuhan in December 2019, where it was first isolated from three people with pneumonia connected to the cluster of cases having the acute respiratory illness. Although it has spread all over the world its origin and source of viral transmission to humans remained unclear even after the joint investigation conducted by WHO experts and Chinese experts.
This virus constantly changes through mutation. In fact, several notable variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerged since the first found in China. In the U.K. it is called the B.1.1.7 variant which appears to spread more easily and with an increased risk of death. Then there is South Africa’s – B.1.351, Japan/Brazil has P.1, in the U.S. (California)it is B.1.427 and many more. While research suggests that COVID-19 vaccines developed, based on SARS-COV-2S have lower efficacy against the variants, the vaccines still appear to provide protection against severe COVID-19. Further research is needed.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is monitoring several other variants identified in New York, Brazil, India, Nigeria, and the U.K. Although the joint WHO and Chinese team has negated the chance of it being caused by China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, it had remained inconclusive to its exact origin. Many experts have found the WHO report unconvincing. With the world facing many variants, deaths, and vaccination the concern to find the origin of the virus is growing.
In its report “The leading scientist says that without a full investigation of lab leak theory, the world will face ‘covid-26 and covid-32’”, The Washington Post has quoted the leading scientist of the Baylor College of Medicine Peter Hotez who is also calling for a full investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus saying the future of public health is at stake. “There’s going to be covid-26 and covid-32 unless we fully understand the origins of covid-19,”. Peter Hotez opined that coming to firm conclusions about the origin of the virus is “absolutely essential” to preventing future pandemics.
It further said, “New reports suggest that China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology was at the center of the outbreak, not animal-to-human transmission elsewhere in Wuhan, which was the long-prevalent opinion. President Biden last week ordered a fresh 90-day intelligence review of the virus’s origins with the goal of examining the possibility that it accidentally leaked from the Wuhan lab instead of being spread by bats or other animals to humans in a zoonotic transmission”.
As quoted from the report Hotez said, “What we need to do is an outbreak investigation,” he said, noting that ideally, this would be a six- to 12-month operation in Wuhan, in Hubei province, with scientists collecting extensive samples and other forensic evidence”.
“Some experts have noted both the presence of the advanced lab in Wuhan and the lack of horseshoe bats in the city as factors for such a leak. Former Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb said Sunday that the lack of Chinese cooperation provided its own form of circumstantial evidence”.
Now the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo has claimed that Wuhan lab is connected to the People’s Liberation Army as military activity went alongside what they claimed was just good old civilian research. With 17Cr cases and 35.4L deaths, the world must know the true cause behind the virus’s origin in China.
