a team of international experts
investigating the origins of covert 19
have all but dismissed a theory
that the virus came from a lab the
conclusion was made by
a who team on a visit to wuhan the
chinese city
where the virus was first detected there
have been a number of unsubstantiated
allegations that the pandemic could have
resulted from an
accident at a chinese lab studying
coronaviruses in bats
the who team in wuhan have visited
markets research institutes
and hospitals and say new information
had been uncovered
but there was still plenty of work to do
so in terms of understanding what
happened in the early days
in december 2019
did we did we change dramatically the
picture we had
beforehand i don't think so
did we improve our understanding did we
add
details to that story absolutely
our initial findings suggest that the
introduction to an intermediary host
species
is the most likely pathways
and one that will
require more studies and more specific
targeted research
well our correspondent stephen macdonald
is in wuhan he says
four theories have been looked at
the who scientists and their chinese
counterparts
say they were looking at four theories
number one
that the coronavirus came from a
specific animal
and jumped directly into human beings
number two
that it went from animal into an
intermediary animal
than into human beings number three that
it's come from
a frozen surface possibly frozen seafood
into human beings number four
that it comes from a lab leak now in
terms of that fourth
they're saying don't waste any more time
and effort on that
we found no evidence of it it would have
been very difficult for it to have
leaked from the wuhan
institute of virology such accidents are
very rare they say
and they said they couldn't find a
single lab anywhere in the world
studying a coronavirus just like this
one
they like theory number two so that's
animal
animal human and that's where they're
saying that the effort needs to go
now much much more research into that
route they're also recommending that
globally databases scientific databases
need to be much more
integrated sharing information enabling
tracking
they want more work to be done into the
study of the survivability
of the coronavirus on frozen surfaces
now they're saying that it can be
transported over
quite long distances on say a frozen
fish what they don't know is when it
gets the other end
if it can then infect somebody
one possibility is there's a combination
of two of those theories that
is that it could be on a frozen wild
animal
so a combination of being frozen and
coming from a wild animal
and that's how it all kicked off
either way a lot more work needs to be
done
they now have wrapped up here they go
back to their countries there will be a
final report though
but although they're saying they've made
significant
breakthroughs they think they are
further down the path of understanding
the origins of the coronavirus it's
still going to take a long time maybe
years until we can really pin this down
that was our correspondent stephen
macdonald reporting there from wuhan
well our correspondent john sudworth
spoke to dr peter dazak
outside the who press conference in
wuhan he asked him whether the
absence of any evidence of a natural
origin one year on surprises him
dassak says it's only a matter of time
before the source is found
if you listen very closely to that press
release what you will find
is that there is a clear indication of
supply chains going into that market
that take you from places where sars
kovi to
relatives are into that market so there
are supply chains going in
from other countries as well and there
are reservoirs
animals that we know are susceptible to
related viruses
evidence of that was found in frozen
food in that market that was clearly
stated in the press conference just then
i think that's a clue as to how
something might have got in we also know
about the cold chain work
and there are also other ideas on the
table i think that um
you know you heard the opinion of the
team that spoke about the
whole group and our opinion on the
various hypotheses
and i think it stands alone as it is it
is given that this report rules out a
lovely
isn't your credibility on that a little
undermined by the fact that you've been
saying that
even before you came here no
and what you find here is um a group a
very large group of experts
have looked at this they've been to the
various labs around the region
and talk to people ask critical
questions got critical answers
and they've come to their conclusion and
i have as well
and what they say is extremely unlikely
and that stands alone
uh our correspondent john sudworth
speaking there to dr peter dasak