DOES THE "ZERO PACIENT" WORKS IN THE CHINESE LABORATORY AND WHAT DO SCIENTISTS SAY?

In the four months since China reported a viral pneumonia outbreak in Hubei province, coronavirus has spread to almost every corner of the globe, but there is still no definitive answer as to where it all started.

China has said the first infected people got the virus from live animals sold at a market in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. But since the first public announcements about an unusual viral outbreak surfaced in December last year, many observers have also noticed that China's first biological safety level 4 laboratory, which conducts studies on animal coronaviruses, is located alone. a few kilometers away from the livestock market.

Is it just a coincidence? Or did the lab in question play a more substantial role in this explosion? Without solid evidence, speculation is filling the void. The following are the things that are known so far.

American concerns for security

Housed in the hilly surroundings of Wuhan, the high biological safety laboratory is the first of its kind in Asia. There are over 1500 virus models.

The lab has been a source of concern for US officials for two years.

Two State Department cables show how US embassy officials in Beijing paid several visits to the facility and sent Washington two official warnings in early 2018 regarding insufficient security measures in the lab. At the time, scientists were conducting dangerous studies on coronaviruses from bats, The Washington Post reported, citing intelligence sources.

Former U.S. intelligence officials have also told various media outlets in the United States that the intelligence community is investigating whether the coronavirus accidentally appeared in the lab, or whether the "zero patient" worked there.

However, intelligence sources told VOA that the U.S. intelligence service "did not collectively agree on a single theory" as to the origin of coronavirus.

As the United States investigates, officials say the Chinese government's continued lack of transparency, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, raises questions about how the epidemic began. Officials also accuse Beijing of still not sharing all the information it has with the international community.

Security concerns by the Chinese themselves

China strongly rejects the possibility that the virus may have originated in the biological safety laboratory, instead of being transmitted from animals to humans in Wuhan. However, the Chinese authorities have not provided sufficient evidence to support their claim.

There is even Chinese evidence that the laboratory had security problems. VOA has tracked down Chinese state media reports of security incidents spotted by Chinese government inspectors, as well as reported accidents that occurred when employees tried to catch night bats destined for exploration work.

About a year before the coronavirus eruption, a security assessment by a Chinese government team found that the laboratory did not meet the country's standards in five categories.

The document found on the official website of the laboratory says that after a strict and detailed inspection, the team gave a high rating for the overall management of laboratory safety. "At the same time, the inspection team also presented opinions on further corrections to the five unimplemented aspects and two findings born during the observation," it said.

In addition to laboratory problems, Chinese state media also reported that inspectors had inadvertently deemed scientists to be managing bats at night.

One of the scientists working at the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention described to Chinese state media how he was once attacked by bats and ended up with the blood of bats on his skin.

In another incident, the same scientist forgot to dress with the right guards and the urine of a naked man had leaked "like rain from the top of his head", the state news agency Xinhua reported.

China, without a single agency to implement biological security measures

The Chinese government has long supported biotechnology, but most recently Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made laboratory safety a national priority. He said during a Chinese leadership meeting in Beijing in February last year that the country needed to speed up the adoption of its first law on biological safety, which would define national policies for the management of dangerous pathogens. A draft law was submitted in October to the Steering Committee of the People's Congress, the highest legislative body.

An independent American review of China's biological security in 2016 found that the country had "a shortage of officials, experts, and scientists specializing in biological safety in laboratories."

Beth Willis, former chairman of the Maryland-based Laboratory Community Advisory Committee, said the biggest risk to the public from laboratories housing dangerous pathogens is when lab workers are inadvertently infected and then go into the community. .

"This has actually happened more than once from the laboratories of USAMRIID (United States Institute of Infectious Diseases Research Institute for Infectious Diseases) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. As the worker fell ill, or was hospitalized with a deadly pathogen, that pathogen was not contagious from human to human, and an outbreak did not occur, ”she said in an email to Voa.

"Accidents happen regularly. We have seen several cases of high profile laboratories in recent years where accidents have occurred or mistakes have been made. For example, in 2014 at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) there were safety errors involving the Ebola virus, anthrax and bird flu, and there were errors in the NIH (National Institutes of Health) involving the variola virus which causes leave, ”said Dr. Filippa Lentzos, a biosafety expert at King’s College London.

"These are just the tip of the iceberg," Ms Lentzos said.

Chinese research on the origin of COVID-19

While Chinese diplomats and officials have presented a variety of conspiracy theories about where the blast began, the country's foreign ministry has insisted that control should be left to experts.

"China has repeatedly stated that the origin of the virus is a scientific question that needs to be assessed by scientists and medical experts and should not be politicized," Geng Shuang, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told a news conference on Monday. .

But Chinese officials themselves have provided little information to scientists to examine, and have kept Wuhan's lab and key parts virtually closed to foreign investigators.

The World Health Organization's joint report with China, published in late February on the possible origin of the virus, listed three ongoing investigations into the origin of the virus, none of which seemed to consider the laboratory a vector of infection.

Virology experts interviewed by VOA believe that researchers should not rule out the possibility that the virus could enter the human population due to a laboratory accident.

"A key component of the new virus project at the Wuhan Institute of Virology involved the infection of laboratory animals with new naked viruses," said Richard H. Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University.

“Therefore, the possibility of a laboratory accident includes two variants: (1) scenarios of direct transmission of a naked virus to a laboratory worker, and (2) scenarios of transmission of a cabbage virus to a laboratory animal, such as: . a rodent, and then a lab worker ”.

Level 4 biological safety labs, like the one in Wuhan, are the most sophisticated isolation labs created to work with the world's deadliest pathogens. However, the laboratory model cannot correct poor training or human errors.

"This risk increases if the laboratory is cultivating a virus that is able to infect humans, especially through the respiratory tract, as then any drop caused by a simple spray or aerosolization of the fluid can be inadvertently absorbed and infected." the operator, ”said Dr. Nikolai Petrovsky, professor at Flinders University and Director of Research in Australia.

"Similarly, if they wear dirty gloves and do not remove them properly, it can cause an accidental infection. Finally, if the waste material or the bodies of infected animals do not burn properly at high temperatures, then this can cause pollution, including, for example, if the waste is dumped in a pile of garbage frequented by rats or cats, etc. ” , Petrovsky said in an email to VOA.

Rutgers University professor Ebright said in an email to VOA that previous laboratory safety breaches indicate that it is a potential source of infection that needs to be taken seriously.

"Documentary evidence shows that projects for the new Barefoot Virus Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Wuhan, as well as at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, used standard bio-safety standards that would pose a high risk of laboratory staff infection after contact with a virus that has the virus transmission properties of the epidemic, ”Ebright said.