In the ongoing pandemic caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, better known as COVID-19, the one most significant question about the virus and the pandemic itself is, where did the virus originate? Most people point to China, and that’s where the World Health Organization is looking. The WHO has visited China, particularly Wuhan, and more specifically, the Huanan market in Wuhan, where they believe the virus got out and into the general population. The market sells many different animals (animals we might call “exotic” because we don’t consume them much here in the US), and many of those animals come from other live animal markets and animal farms across China. But did the virus simply jump from one of those animals to humans? Or was the virus isolated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and got out, either accidently or purposely? We can’t be sure; the WHO studies were incomplete because the Chinese government has prevented them from getting all the answers they were seeking.
So, where did the virus come from? The intransigence of the Chinese government is very concerning. Does the government have something to hide? Are they sitting on potentially explosive information? The very fact that the city of Wuhan has both large animal markets and an Institute of Virology is intriguing, and potentially suggestive. Did the virus come from somewhere else in China and was it transported, either as an isolate or as an infected animal, to the Institute? And did it subsequently get out into the general population? At least three other provinces in China have farms and markets which sell pangolins and bats and other animals sold in the Huanan market. (As an aside, I understand that coronaviruses have been isolated from both animal species, but are too distantly related to SARS-CoV-2 to have been its predecessor.) Or did the virus originate in the Huanan market? Perhaps only the Chinese know.
The refusal of the Chinese government to allow the WHO team to investigate fully every place they want to go is the most disconcerting thing about this investigation. To paraphrase Shakespeare, I think they are protesting too much. If they have nothing to hide, why limit the WHO investigation? I find myself wondering if the virus actually got out of the Wuhan Lab. But how? Purposely? Who would want to deliberately release the virus? Accidently? That makes somewhat more sense. I can conceive that someone got infected in the lab and went home with it unwittingly. I have worked in labs where we did research with highly infectious viruses, and the possibility of lab infection, while practically zero if everyone follows all the rules concerning handling of the viruses, is not absolutely zero. Especially if someone wants to release it. Presumably the Wuhan Institute has similar rules. But if the virus got out, whether accidentally or purposefully, it would be the most heinous, monstrous, outrageous release of a virus–or any infectious agent–in modern history. The death toll from SARS-CoV-2 has been in the millions worldwide (and over half a million in the US alone). If it happened that way, it’s no wonder the Chinese government is restricting access to the members of the WHO investigative team.