Recently, the Sunday issue of the British "Guardian" "The Observer" published an article written by science editor Robin McKie about the US government's COVID-19 traceability report. The author emphasizes that regardless of the conclusion of the COVID-19 traceability report of the US government, the emergence of the COVID-19 virus is caused by the destruction of animal habitats by humans.
US President Biden said in May that he gave the US situation agency 90 days to investigate the source of the COVID-19 virus. At that time, several scientists said that they were not sure that the COVID-19 virus originated in nature. Ninety days have passed, and the US intelligence services will submit their investigation report to the US government this week.
Did the COVID-19 virus spread from bats to other animals and then to humans? Or was it leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology? If this is the case, has the COVID-19 virus been strengthened to become a more deadly virus? The author believes that these issues are undoubtedly very important and are useful for people to prevent new epidemics from happening. However, the U.S. government has not found new evidence in the past three months, and relevant Chinese authorities have also provided some new data. It is still impossible to give a definitive conclusion this week.
However, as for the origin of the COVID-19 epidemic, former US President Trump has publicly accused that Wuhan virus research has leaked the COVID-19 virus-which China has categorically denied it-but there is insufficient evidence to confirm it. However, some scientists still believe that there is a possibility of laboratory leaks. In May, 18 top scientists wrote to the journal Science, claiming that the contagion theory and the leak theory are equally possible, and accused the World Health Organization's traceability study in Wuhan for failing to comprehensively consider the two theories. Richard Dillov, the former head of MI6, claimed that "some scientific journals categorically refused to publish any articles that differed from Chinese views."
The main evidence that these so-called laboratory leaks rely on is that scientists have not been able to determine the intermediary that infected the virus from bats and transmitted it to humans. In addition, Wuhan Virus Research has a laboratory led by virologist Shi Zhengli. Shi Zhengli's team specializes in collecting coronaviruses, and she herself was responsible for tracking the bat source of the SARS virus last time. Therefore, a global coronavirus research center is located in the city where the COVID-19 virus first appeared—some conspiracy theorists believe this is no coincidence.
However, Shi Zhengli denied that she had done work to enhance the toxicity of the new virus, and she or her team had been infected with a new type of coronavirus that had been collected. This statement is supported by a review article signed by a number of scientists in a recent issue of the journal Cell: “During the COVID-19 outbreak, a large number of contact tracing of early cases were carried out, but there was no report. The case is related to the laboratory staff of Wuhan Institute of Virology. During the test in March 2020, all personnel in Dr. Shi Zhengli's laboratory tested negative."
The COVID-19 virus is highly spread among people, and some people suspect that the virus has been genetically enhanced. Professor David Robertson of the Virus Research Center at the University of Glasgow refuted this view. "Indeed, this virus is transmitted by asymptomatic carriers and is most suitable for human-to-human transmission. So, how does such a natural virus form? After all, it is easy to infect humans. However, it is not just a human virus. We have also found it in pangolins. This virus is easily transmitted from humans to minks, and it has also infected deer in the United States. It is not a human-adapted virus, but what we call a universal virus or hybrid virus ."
However, some senior scientists, including Sir Jeremy Farrer, the head of the Wellcome Trust, once attached great importance to the possibility of the COVID-19 virus leaking from the laboratory. In the recently published book "Spike: The Virus v The People", Farrar clearly pointed out that for the emergence of the COVID-19 virus, he was initially worried that the virus might have leaked from a virus research center. of. He changed his views after a lot of discussions with other researchers.
He believes that as far as the current situation is concerned, there is sufficient evidence that the COVID-19 virus is produced in nature, but no one can rule out other possibilities. ".
Professor James Wood of Cambridge University supports this view. He believes that there is very strong evidence that the COVID-19 virus comes from nature, but this statement is not recognized by certain political groups at all. These political groups preach that COVID-19 pneumonia is caused by laboratory leaks because this claim has diverted people’s attention from the growing body of evidence, which points to the loss of biodiversity, deforestation, and wildlife trade. This will increase the risk of the virus spilling from the natural world. This is the real risk factor for the pandemic we are facing.
The author points out that it is not dangerous to manipulate the virus in the laboratory. The real danger comes from the wildlife trade, the use of bulldozers to pull down rain forests, and the reclamation of wasteland for farmland planting or mining. With the destruction of vegetation and wild animals, countless kinds of viruses and their parasitic bacteria are released, looking for new hosts, such as humans and domestic animals. This situation has led to AIDS and SARS, and it is very likely to cause COVID-19-like pneumonia.
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