Evidence -based conclusion that Covid’s pandemic has begun with a virus that jumped from animals to humans highlights the risk we face more and more. However, our ability to prevent or prepare for pandemics continues to be impaired.
In late June, the scientific advisory group for the origins of new pathogens (Sago), a group of independent experts convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), published an assessment of the origins of Covid.
The report concluded that although we do not know conclusively where the virus that caused the pandemic came from, “a zoonotic origin with animal transmission to humans is currently considered the best -founded hypothesis.”
The Sago found no scientific evidence that supported “a deliberate manipulation of the virus in the laboratory and subsequent Biosafety violation.”
This follows a series of reports and research articles from the early days of the pandemic that came to similar conclusions: Covid probably emerged from an infected animal at the Huanan market in Wuhan, and was not the result of a laboratory “escape”.
But the Conspiracy Theories about the origins of Covid persist. And this is damage our ability to prevent the next pandemic.
Investigation attacks
A team of experts in 2020, an article in the magazine Nature Medicine On the origins of SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes Covid.
Like Sago, several hypotheses were evaluated on how a new coronavirus could have emerged in Wuhan in late 2019. It was concluded that the virus probably emerged through a natural transmission of animals – a “zoonosis” – caused by unregulated wildlife trade in China.
But this article has become a focal point of conspiracy theories and political attacks-lament the researchers in.
The idea that Sars-Cov-2 may have originated in a laboratory is not, in itself, a conspiracy theory. The 2020 study seriously considered this possibility, although evidence has not emerged to support it.
But public discourse on the origin of the pandemic has been increasingly shaped by political agendas and conspiracy narratives. Part of this defames experts who studied this issue based on data.
A common conspiracy theory states that high employees pressured scientists to promote the hypothesis of a natural origin, while silenced the possibility of a “escape” from the laboratory. Some conspiracy theories even suggest that scientists who promoted this “favorite” hypothesis were rewarded with financing in return.
“These narratives are false”the investigators guarantee. “They ignore, discard or misrepresent the extensive set of evidence about the origin of the pandemic. Instead, they are based on selective citations of private discussions and a distorted representation of the scientific process and motivations of scientists,” they add.
What do the evidence say?
5 years after the aforementioned article in Nature Medicinethere was a substantial set of new evidence that deepened our understanding of how SARS-COV-2 probably emerged through a natural spill.
In early 2020, the arguments in favor of a zoonotic origin were already convincing. Much discussed characteristics of the virus are found in related coronavirus and carry signs of natural evolution. The Sars-Cov-2 genome did not show signs of laboratory manipulation.
Wildlife trade and the animal breeding industry, which move thousands of millions of dollars in China, regularly carry high -risk animals, often infected with viruses, to densely populated urban centers.
SARS-COV-1, the virus responsible for the SARS outbreak, is believed to have emerged this way in 2002 in the Chinese province of Guangdong.
Similarly, detailed analyzes of epidemiological data show that the first known cases of Covid focused on the Huanan’s living animal market in Wuhan, Hubei province, in December 2019.
Several independent data sources, including early hospitalizations, excessive pneumonia deaths, antibody studies and infections between health professionals, indicate that Covid has spread for the first time in the district where the market is located.
One, in 2022, showed that positive environmental samples for SARS-Cov-2 focused on the market section where wildlife were sold.
In, it was shown that these same samples contained genetic material of susceptible animals-including guawded dogs and civets-in cages, carts and other surfaces used to maintain and transport them.
That It does not prove that the infected animals were the source. But denounces that the market was where the virus first spread. And it is contrary to what would be expected from a laboratory “escape”.
The evidence -based conclusion that Covid’s pandemic probably began with a virus that jumped from animals to humans highlights the very real risk we face more and more. This is how pandemics begin, and it will happen again. However, we are destroying our ability to prevent or prepare them for them.
Prevention of the next pandemic in question
How The Conversation Writes, As Speculation and conspiracy theories around the origin of COVID They undermined confidence in science.
The false balance between the theories of the “escape” of the laboratory and the zoonotic origin added fuel to the fire of the conspiracy.
This anticientific agenda, resulting in part of the conspiracy theories of Covid’s origin, is being used to help justify profound cuts in financing biomedical investigation, public health and global aid.
However, these areas are essential for pandemic preparation.
In the US, for example, this meant significant cuts in disease control centers and national health institutes, the closure of the United States for international development and WHO withdrawal.
With confidence in science and public health institutions hindered the development and adoption of vaccines that save lives and other medical interventions. This makes us more vulnerable to future pandemics.
