Coronavirus origin may be found in few years, says member of WHO’s China mission
- Zoologist Peter Daszak thinks researchers will ‘fairly soon’ be able to pin down how animals carrying Covid-19 infected people in Wuhan
- The team is set to release a report as early as next week on the initial conclusions of their recent trip to trace the source of the pandemic
The global community will find out “fairly soon, within the next few years” what started the coronavirus pandemic, a key member of a World Health Organization-led investigation into the pandemic’s origins said on Wednesday.
In a press briefing organised by the think tank Chatham House in London, Peter Daszak estimated that collective scientific research might be able to pin down how animals carrying Covid-19 infected the first people in Wuhan identified last December.
“There was a conduit from Wuhan to the provinces in South China, where the closest relative viruses to (the coronavirus) are found in bats,” said Daszak, the president of the New York based group, EcoHealth Alliance.
He said the wildlife trade was the most likely explanation of how Covid-19 arrived in Wuhan, where the first human cases were detected.
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That hypothesis, Daszak said, is “the one that’s most strongly supported both on the WHO (and) the China side”. Daszak and his co-authors are set to release a report as early as next week, on the initial conclusions of their recent mission to Wuhan.
“I am convinced we’re going to find out fairly soon within the next few years,” Daszak said regarding the outbreak’s origins. “We can have real significant data on where this came from and how it emerged.”