The debate over the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage more than three years after the first cases of infection were reported in China, and there is no sign that it is about to come to a conclusion.
“We may never know exactly what happened,” warns virologist Alain Lamarre, immunology specialist attached to the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS).
The researcher notes that there is currently a “fairly broad consensus” in the scientific community regarding the hypothesis that the coronavirus responsible for the pandemic made the leap naturally from animals to humans in a Wuhan market before sweeping the planet.
PHOTO THOMAS PETER, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a visit by a World Health Organization team in February 2021.
The possibility that he could have accidentally escaped from a high-security research laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology after being taken from a bat nevertheless continues to be defended by several specialists.
“Both hypotheses are possible. The first seems more likely, but the other cannot be ruled out in light of the information available,” notes Mr. Lamarre.
Research continues
The World Health Organization (WHO), which is still trying to shed light on this delicate subject, warned a few days ago that research was continuing, particularly with Beijing.
“I have written and spoken to senior Chinese officials on multiple occasions… All hypotheses about the origins of the virus remain on the table,” its chief executive, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told Reuters..
The head of the WHO made this clarification in the wake of an article by the wall street journal suggesting that the US Department of Energy now believed, with “low confidence”, that the accidental laboratory leak hypothesis was the most likely explanation.
FBI Director Christopher Wray later said that conclusion was shared by his organization.
The various agencies charged in 2021 by US President Joe Biden with shedding light on the issue remain divided, however, with a majority favoring the hypothesis of natural transmission.
These differences of opinion are echoed politically in the United States, where tensions between elected Republicans and Democrats over the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic remain high.
They were clearly visible on Wednesday during a hearing of a committee of the House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, which intends to determine what happened.
I heard part of the hearings and it was not of great scientific interest. I didn’t learn anything new. The speakers seemed above all to want to settle scores.
Virologist Alain Lamarre, immunology specialist attached to INRS
The House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, and the Senate, with a Democratic majority, nevertheless agreed on Friday to demand that the intelligence services reveal the information they have.
Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University microbiologist who finds the lab leak hypothesis plausible, believes that all relevant documents in government hands should be made public.
CHINA DAILY ARCHIVE PHOTO, SUPPLIED BY REUTERS
Patients with COVID-19 are hospitalized in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Wuhan, China in February 2020.
The researcher hopes to obtain more detailed information on the activities of a New York organization dedicated to the fight against pandemics which, he says, worked in concert with the laboratory in Wuhan to improve the capacities to study coronaviruses.
Trump and the origins of COVID-19
Discussions about the origin of the pandemic were complicated from the start by strong statements from former US President Donald Trump towards China.
In the spring of 2020, he raised the possibility that the coronavirus was in fact a biological weapon produced by Beijing, prompting accusations of “conspiracy”. The hypothesis is categorically dismissed today by the American intelligence services.
PHOTO MANDEL NGAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Former United States President Donald Trump in April 2020
A team delegated by the WHO to China to investigate the origin of the pandemic announced in early 2021 that an accidental laboratory leak seemed “extremely unlikely” and in the same breath defended the scenario of natural transmission.
His work is criticized by a group of scholars, including Mr. Ebright, who claim in the pages of Science the launch of a “genuinely independent investigation”, despite opposition from Beijing.
The announcement of the US Department of Energy’s analysis a few weeks ago reignited interest in the accidental laboratory leak hypothesis and prompted further denunciation from the Chinese government.
“We should stop agitating this theory of a laboratory leak, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the search for the origins of the virus,” said a spokesperson quoted by Agence France. -Press.
Learn
The Dr Gaston De Serres, a physician-epidemiologist attached to the Institut national de cause of the pandemic.
It is nevertheless possible now to learn lessons from what happened, underlines the analyst, who insists on the need to actively pursue research to detect dangerous viruses in the environment and minimize the risks of transmission in humans. .
Whether the coronavirus jumped naturally from animals to humans or accidentally escaped from a lab after being taken from an animal, it came from nature.
The Dr Gaston De Serres, physician-epidemiologist attached to the INSPQ
Understanding the mechanisms of transmission “ironically” requires continuing research in high-level laboratories such as that in Wuhan, notes the Dr De Serres, who stresses the importance of maintaining appropriate biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of leakage.
A US intelligence report released in February identified “the lack of international consensus on biosafety standards” as one of the factors that could facilitate the emergence of a new pandemic.
“Laboratories that work with pathogens are aware of the risks and are normally organized accordingly,” says Dr.r From Serres.