Finding answers to questions in Wuhan where the Corona virus epidemic began

This is the first city in China where the virus was first detected and controlled. And it is in this city that the real source of the virus must be found. In the current propaganda war between the United States and China, the real question is: Did the Coronavirus come from a natural source, as many scientists are saying, or was it developed in a laboratory from which it originated? An elderly woman is singing on a table in a small room of a village house on the outskirts of Wuhan. Another woman in front of them is sobbing softly and crying. His 44-year-old brother died of the coronavirus in early February this year, and he could not forgive himself for it. After the ceremony, Miss Wang, who did not want to be named, said that Shaman (a person who speaks to spirits) received a message from the world beyond Lahad. Her brother Wang Fei has absolved her (Miss Wang) of any responsibility. "Fay doesn't accuse me," he said of his brother's name, which the whole family used to call him from childhood. "He was comforting me and trying to convince me to accept his death as a matter of course." His brother died in the Woodward ward where he could not be reunited with his relatives. His last days were spent trying to send out annoying text messages. In one of the texts, he wrote, "I'm so tired. The disease has taken a long time.

Miss Wang's claim that she was responsible for her brother's death is one of the cruel implications of this global epidemic: forcibly separating the victim from her family. "I couldn't go to the hospital to take care of her," she said. When I found out he was dead, I wasn't ready to admit it. My whole family is exhausted from this grief. She has many questions about her brother's treatment that she wanted answers to. Did they get the best treatment, and could we do anything better to save them? Local police had told Ms. Wang not to talk to foreign media about the matter, and that not following the police's instructions could cause her problems. A woman we had arranged to talk to was followed by plainclothes police. When they tried to reach our car, the police stopped us.

We met another man in the dark by a lake east of Wuhan. He said he had been approached twice by the police for talking about his father's death. Finding out how the virus spread in Wuhan and whether it could have been better controlled is not an easy task for both victims and journalists.

But it is important to ask about the epicenter of the epidemic around the world, not just a hobby.

By the time Wang Fei began to feel sick in mid-January, a total of three deaths had been confirmed in China, according to official figures. Today, more than 11 million people have been infected worldwide, while more than half a million people have died, and the virus has forced economies around the world to shut down due to lockdowns. Miss Wang says her brother, who was a driver, never left Wuhan. Over the course of 40 years, they have seen this industrial city in central China grow and become a center of international growth and transportation. But the last days of Wang Fei's life were spent watching the city's decline. In early January, doctors realized the disease was a serious infectious disease and enforced quarantine rules in hospitals at their level. But despite this dangerous situation, the authorities were silencing the health workers. Li Wenliang, a doctor who tried to warn his colleagues to take precautionary measures against the contagious disease, was reprimanded and forced to sign a confession by police. Was By January 18, when authorities insisted the disease was not contagious, Wang Fei began to feel unwell. He went to the hospital where he was given paracetamol for fever and then sent back home. "They say humans don't get the disease from humans, but all the doctors are wearing masks," he told his sister.  She can still repeat the words of consolation given by government officials today. "I was telling them at the time that it could be controlled and treated. But now that I look back, I think the government did not warn us properly. Now I know he needed regular medical care at the time. That's why I feel sorry. “Wang Fei had canceled New Year's Eve celebrations with his home next week. They spent that time in a long line at the hospital to see a doctor but because of so many sick people and lack of beds, they had to return home “She was convinced that her country and her government loved her, and she would do her best to save him," she said.

A lockdown was imposed on Wuhan on January 23. It was the first lockdown in the world to prevent the virus from spreading and it was the longest and most severe lockdown. But with the start of the holiday, it was too late for the lockdown to stop 5 million people from leaving the city and returning to their homes. A few days later, Wang Fei's condition began to deteriorate and his family called an ambulance. He was told that there was a list of 600 people before him for the ambulance. Seven hours later, he was finally admitted to the hospital. Wang Fei was now trapped in a hospital system where the number of patients was beyond his means. He called his sister and said that she was having difficulty in getting basic necessities like asking for water. His condition worsened. On February 7, Dr. Lee Wen Liang, a doctor reprimanded by police, died at the same hospital. Wang Fei's courage began to respond. He told his sister, "If a doctor can't survive, how likely I am to survive." Hospital staff in Wuhan are still being silenced. Outside a hospital, we spoke to a nurse who shared her experience of caring for Covid-19 patients directly. After we introduced each other, she got on her bicycle and sped off. Two plainclothes policemen, watching us from a distance, suddenly appeared from the side street. He grabbed the handlebar of his bicycle and ran with them, then stopped them with the bicycle. I saw them talking harshly to the nurse. But by the time I got there, they had left the woman. The police called me shortly after and asked me to delete his interview. For their safety, I had no choice but to obey them. Information control is a central part of government policy in China. That is why this is the main part of today's report.

Wuhan's lockdown has managed to contain the epidemic in the city, but China is facing charges, including allegations leveled by the US government. The United States has accused the United States of delaying the outbreak. Due to the secrecy of actions and facts, it took the form of a global crisis.

Delays of one day in the early stages make a big difference in the rate of spread.  According to an investigative report, if the Chinese government had taken action a week earlier, the number of affected people in China would have been reduced by 66%.  Authorities, however, deny the allegations. He insisted it was a disease of which nothing was known beforehand, his reaction was swift and pointed out that his actions were supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Was also praised.

The Chinese government is comparing its actions with those of Western governments in order to make its performance success, and is silencing all those who may challenge its narrative.

Now that the failure of government in democracies is being highlighted by the independent press, it is not possible to monitor such a government in China. This is where talking about your dead brother can catch the eye of the police.  We stayed there for 20 days and tried to contact local MPs, senior health officials, professors and doctors, but no request to meet us was granted. We forwarded our inquiries to the Chinese Health Commission and its foreign and health ministries about the information provided to the public during the early days of the epidemic. No answers were found to these questions.

Wang Fei lived near the market that was the center of attention in the early days. Despite its name, the Hunan Sea Food Market sold seafood as well as a few wild animals as delicacies.

This market is now closed.  Initially, it was considered the site of the onset of the epidemic, the site where the virus was transmitted from animal to human. The virus is now being identified as SARS CoV-2 and belongs to a group called the coronavirus. They are called corona because they have crown-like thorns on the skin of the virus. Most of these viruses are said to be found in bats.  Some of these viruses are said to have the ability to be transmitted directly from bats to humans, or to other animals after being infected with the virus, or through a medium, which is later transmitted to humans. In the company of or in their use, the virus is transmitted to humans.  One theory is that the first coronavirus, which began in China in November 2002, was spread in this way.  The stork coronavirus, also known as stork cove-1, is said to have been transmitted from bats to huFor months, Chinese officials have denied the outbreak, and by then more than 800 people have died worldwide.  Nearly two decades later, a similar outbreak of the SARS-2 virus appeared in Wang Fe's neighborhood in Wuhan. According to one study, half of them belonged to the seafood market. So it is not surprising that most people estimate that the real source of the virus was found in the animals that were sold in this market.

But after testing samples from the market, China has now completely rejected the idea. These tests have shown some effects of the virus, but the virus was not found in any of the animals there.

Experts believe that the epidemic originated elsewhere and that the crowded market was instrumental in spreading it from one person to another. Most scientists agree, or similarly, on whether the SARS Co-2 naturally transmitted from animal to human from this market or elsewhere.

This indicates a large number of cases of the virus being transmitted from animals to humans due to high population growth rates and human encroachment on natural and wildlife.

Dr. Yoon Kauk-yung, a microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong who was part of the Chinese Health Commission investigating Wuhan, says the idea of ​​the original source of the virus from animals to humans has so far differed. The ratio is considered to be the most accurate. That's not enough, he says, because there have been many such incidents in the past, from Sars-CoV-1 to bird flu epidemics.

"The H5N1 virus was the first warning virus, then SARS, then H5N1 in the Yangtze Delta, and now SARS Co-2," he said.  "So if you ask me what's most likely ..." That is, the virus came from the market, from the markets where wild animals are sold.  He argues that measures to control the virus should, therefore, focus on the wildlife trade. "Changing the culture in a society is not an easy task, but we must do it," he says.  Finding the original source of the virus from which it originated is not just a matter of research interest. If SARS Co-2 is spread from a specific species of animal, then it means that there is always a risk of an outbreak of such viruses.  In mid-May, the World Health Organization passed a resolution calling for a major international effort to identify animals that could be a source of the virus.

The agency has announced that it has authorized the deployment of an investigation team to China for this purpose. However, scientists know that this may not be an easy task. We sent many questions to the Chinese National Health Commission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health about the work they have done so far. We tried to find out if tests have been started on suspected animals that could spread the virus. We didn't get any answers to our questions.

We were stopped from filming outside the locked Hunan Sea Food Market. When I told a police officer there that I was a foreign journalist, he said, "I don't care where you come from." China has taken a number of steps to control the virus. You just have to be more discriminating with the help you render toward other people. While Wang Fei was in a life-and-death struggle at the hospital, a building in another location in Wuhan, a 40-minute drive from the Hwanan Seafood Market, had become the center of a completely different ideology. The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) is now the target of a storm of conspiracy theories, suspicions, and accusations that the virus may have leaked from the laboratory. These ideas are still debated today.  Against the backdrop of a lush field and a lake, the structure of the WIV's darkened cement and glass building is clearly visible from a nearby road. When we got there, we were immediately taken into custody by the security guards who told us that this was a sensitive area. He immediately called the police. The institute is the largest laboratory for studying coronavirus deposits, species, and the spread of the virus from bats. The researchers at the institute are led by well-known scientist Xi Jingli, who is known as the "Beat Woman" because of her mastery of the science. After years of hard work, they have collected specimens from many species of live bats from remote areas and caves in China. men through musk bugs. Musk Blau is a cute cat with blonde hair found in southern China a recently published research paper, co-authored by Professor Xi, details hundreds of bats that contain the coronavirus, many of which have been described before. We’re not published. The study also mentions mutations in viruses caused by genetic factors, including the growth of a new virus called Chamrik (which is not real and later created) or a hybrid. Which are two generations), on which research means that they can understand the risk of infection to humans and the ability to create an epidemic. It was Professor Xi who discovered the sequence of the genetic code of the virus closest to the SARS-1 virus in a bat found in a cave in Greece, China. Since then, fears of an outbreak of the SARS-1 epidemic, or an even more dangerous pandemic, and the threat of an even more contagious disease outbreak have been the main reason for the creation of the Corona Virus Research Center in Wuhan.

Just two days later, on January 2 this year, when she realized that a new virus had arrived in Wuhan, she became the first scientist to sequence Sarskov-2.  Ironically, the sequencing of the virus in WIV also helped to target the conspiracy theories about the virus's release from the laboratory.

Subsequent research, including that of Professor Xi himself, suggests that the genome of this virus differs significantly from that of similar coronaviruses.  The tips of its protein-rich skin - the pointed crowns that cling to the cells of the host body that infects the human body - are deeply attached to human cells.  Once other viruses enter a body, it takes a while to make its home there.

Another feature of its protein skin tips, which is not found in other storks like the coronavirus, is called 'feuron cleavage site'. This feature is thought to make the virus more effective, causing the virus to attach to human cells and then take control of them and then begin to replicate them from within. Is.

It's a combination of a variety of factors ہونا the proximity of WIV to the epicenter of the epidemic, the kind of agency it was investigating, and apparently, the potential of this type of virus-which has caused a great deal of controversy. And the alternative to the naturally spreading theory (from animal to human theory) became the subject of people's conspiracy theories.  Claims that the virus was released from a Chinese laboratory began circulating in Chinese Internet circles in early February. 

There have also been rumors that the virus has spread to local people from infected animals in the laboratory. Or that a researcher at Wuhan's research institute may have been accidentally infected with the virus, a natural virus, or a virus developed by a laboratory.  Conspiracy theories, including claims that the virus may have been developed as a biological weapon, quickly spread to foreign newspapers and websites. But there is not a single piece of concrete evidence to support the hypothesis that the virus was leaked from the laboratory. Although the virus has some unusual characteristics, there is no evidence that the virus was not transmitted from animals to humans by natural means.

In February, Professor Xi Jingli himself responded to these assumptions on social media.

"I, Xi Jingli, swear by myself that these (allegations) have nothing to do with the laboratory," he told those who spread such rumors. And those who are saying such things should stop their nonsense.

Meanwhile, Wang Fei was also suffering from the effects of the virus.  It was a kind of gradual deterioration of health that doctors around the world knew were the most common side effects of the disease. Their lungs were being eaten by germs that were filling them with white blood cells and a liquid. The amount of oxygen in his blood was decreasing. "My heart rate is 160 beats per minute," Wang Fei texted his sister from the hospital. My blood oxygen level is 70. The next day, February 8, he sent the last text: 'Please try to save me. I can see the stars. ”He died a few hours later. And then on April 30, the US president jumped into the fray.  A reporter asked President Trump: "Have you ever seen anything that convinced you that the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology?"

"Yes, I have," Donald Trump replied. As other members of his government began to speak out, Pompeo accused China of having a "historic reputation for running substandard laboratories."   

But despite claims that they have "heaps of evidence" that the virus leaked from the laboratory, the United States has so far failed to provide a single piece of evidence. Now that this ideology has become a central theme in the escalating war between the United States and China, critics of President Trump see it as a sensational ploy to divert attention from his strategy for dealing with the epidemic at home.

Realizing that they should not be mired in conspiracy theories, a few scientists have suggested that the leak from the laboratory should not be completely ruled out.  He says the hypothesis is linked to a major debate in scientific circles today and has implications not only for China but also for the United States.

WIV is not the only organization in the world to collect such large numbers of coronavirus bats.

It is part of a series of research efforts around the world to transmit the virus from animals to humans and the risk of this epidemic.  Some of the research work in Wuhan has involved American scientists, as well as significant US funding.  And the gluten virus - a new virus by transplanting the genomes of different viruses together - using a technique that is readily available in laboratories around the world.

This type of research has been the subject of much controversy among scientists in terms of its benefits and risks.  Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.  Opponents of the technique say that what is being said about the good could be the opposite. By manipulating the virus to create a new virus and making it more dangerous and deadly, humans can spread a self-made epidemic of laboratory viruses.  These risks include laboratory researchers contracting the virus, perhaps unintentionally, when they are collecting virus samples from an animal in the field when they care for infected animals in laboratories, or when they are alive. Having an experiment with a virus.  For example, after the outbreak of the SARS CoV-1 coronavirus, there were four cases of virus leaks during laboratory studies and research work.

Two of these incidents occurred in 2004 at the National Institute of Beijing. During one of them, a researcher contracted the virus while working in a laboratory for two consecutive weeks. He then infected his mother with the disease and died, including a nurse who had infected several people in front of him.  Now that the hypothesis of a laboratory leak is hotly debated in American political circles, the majority of scientists have rejected it.  This is the consensus of scientists who informed the mainstream media, leading to the popular belief that the main source of the SARS-2 virus is animals and that it is transmitted from animals to humans. Spread from This is not because such viruses have been transmitted from animals to humans before, but because Professor Shi Zhengli presented a very important piece of evidence in support of this theory.  To protect his laboratory from these conspiratorial assumptions, he worked hard to collect records of old experiments and samples that were in his store.  In her research paper, written in February, she said that she was able to gather information about a specific virus to achieve her goal. The virus, which they named RaTG13, was obtained from a bat in 2013 and was 96.2 percent identical to SARS CoV-2.  Although this resemblance seems very close, it takes decades, according to experts, for genetic differences to be eliminated through the evolutionary process in the natural environment.  If the SARS CoV-2 had leaked from the coronavirus deposits in the laboratory, the virus would have been present in the laboratory or any other type of virus nearby.

"It took me a long time," Professor Xi told Scientific American. I couldn't sleep for a moment for several days. ‘But the evidence that had the most decisive effect on the debate over the alleged leak from the laboratory was published in the March issue of the medical journal Nature Medicine.

The evidence, published in this journal, is now popular around the world. The peculiar crowns on the skin of the SARS CoV-2 virus - the furion cleavage site that makes it so closely associated with human cells - could, according to experts, be formed by natural processes.  Evidence of this has been obtained by means of a computer modeling method. According to experts, if a scientist had already used this method to figure out how the nucleus of the virus would attach to the cells of the human body, the result would be a much weaker relationship than the real one. ۔ In other words, a computer may not be able to detect the ability of a virus to attach to a human cell. Therefore, their argument is that this proves that no scientist can develop this virus in the laboratory.  They also conclude that in order to develop SARS CoV-2 in the laboratory, you need to start working on a virus that is genetically closer to RaTG13. RaTG13 was the only virus present in the Wuhan laboratory that was closest to the dangerous virus. A new virus cannot be created from a virus that does not exist. Experts say it is inconceivable that the virus created its specific characteristics in humans or animals after it became epidemic and no one knew about it.  The head of the research team, Christian Anderson, a professor of immunology and microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States, said: We did not reject this assumption.  And as much data as there is, it presents the natural history of the SARS Co-2 with a continuum. There is no data to prove that it has anything to do with the laboratory.

"Most of the hypotheses that link the virus to the laboratory are conspiracy theories," he added. This is putting a lot of obstacles in the way of efforts to control Quad-19 and save precious human lives.

Despite the popularity of this research paper by Nature Medicine, there are still some scientists who refuse to accept it as conclusive evidence and continue to say that there is some 'link' in the virus. Is broken.  Nikolai Petrovsky is a professor of medicine at the University of Flanders in Adelaide and is the research director at Vagin, a company that develops the Covid-19 vaccine in Australia. He believes that the theory of laboratory manipulation will be considered because it lies behind the ability of SARS CoV-2 to attach to human cells. He also rejects the argument that if it did not already exist in the computer model, it means that it never happened. "There are a lot of experiments in science that are based solely on the assumption that lets experiment," he says. And so a lot of things happen by accident or accident other experts cite Wuhan's past experiments in which different viruses were combined to create a new virus that could be used to investigate how the nucleus of a virus attaches to a human cell. Become

And they point out that there is no way to know if, among other things, Wuhan actually has hundreds of samples of the coronavirus, some of which have genetic makeup compared to RaTG13. Be closer to

Another thing, RaTG13 is also being questioned. The BBC has confirmed to a reputable Chinese watchdog that this is the same virus that WIV mentioned earlier in another research paper, RaBatCov / 4991. Was No reason has been given for the name change, but a 2016 article makes it clear that the virus appears to be another strain of coronaviruses, such as the SARS. Professor Petrovsky says it would be strange if WIV had stopped further work on such viruses because of its interest in them. But the virus was not mentioned again until RaBatCov / 4991 was recently mentioned as the closest virus to SARS CoV-2 with a new name RaTG13.  Richard Ebright, a professor of microbiology and biosafety at Rutgers University in the United States, says there is only one way to rule out the possibility of a virus leaking from a laboratory. "For credible investigations, the research team should be given full access to these installations, their samples, records, and staff without any hindrance." And it should be allowed to take environmental samples of their installations and also to take serological samples of the staff in it.

The U.S. government announced in April that its intelligence community did not believe the virus had been altered or created, but that the government was keeping a close eye on emerging intelligence reports and reports. To determine if the outbreak was caused by touching an infected animal or was the result of an accident in Wuhan's laboratory. We asked to speak to Professor Xi Jingli but he was denied. We asked WIV to find out if there had been any research, and if not, would they allow such research. These questions have not been answered. Wuhan was locked down for 76 days. Fearing that she might also become infected, Miss Wang was afraid to go to her mother, so she has stuck in the office again and survived on past meals. His brother's 13-year-old daughter came to live with him, while his widow, who was also infected with the virus, later recovered from the hospital.  "I'm writing a diary of my brother's memories and then posting them on social media to reassure me of my emptiness and helplessness," says Miss Wang.  When the lockdown was eased on April 8, they returned to the city where the virus had been eradicated through a collective effort and forced lockdown.  Today, Wuhan is returning to a normal life, but the negative effects of the lockdown on its economy can still be seen.

People will still be seen meeting and eating at the usually vibrant Shabina Market, but many tables are now empty. A woman who was selling boiled frogs there told me that "at the moment the number of customers has dropped by two-thirds."  There are also signs of some other activities. Early in the lockdown, censorship was ineffective for a short time during the turmoil.  People on social media openly expressed their grief and anger over the government's failure. He also posted messages of condolence on the death of Dr. Li Wen Liang.  Today, however, a different narrative has taken its place in China. "China has come together to fight the epidemic," said a man selling a local fish in a hut. But you foreigners do not know how to stay safe.

And now customers entering these markets have embraced another ideology that is being promoted by China's state media and senior government officials.  One woman told me, 'I think the virus came from the United States. In the early days of the epidemic, US troops visited Wuhan. They went back in a chartered plane long ago. In the absence of independent evidence, the US-China trade war allegations are being crushed by the crutches of politics and propaganda.  And it is impossible to answer big questions without proof. How will the effects of the next human-to-human transmission of the virus be overcome? And how can we strike a balance between the benefits of exposure to an increasing number of epidemiological viruses in virology laboratories and the risks they pose?  Scientists who support such laboratories say the SARS Co-2 has encouraged them to redouble their efforts. Creating a large-scale collection of bat samples, Professor Xi Jingli says the "mission must continue", which Rutgers University professor Richard Ebright calls a "new definition of fanaticism". China is currently under diplomatic pressure, and due to the international response, it has agreed to conduct an independent investigation into the virus, although it is unclear what its scope will be, who will be involved and When will it start? Chinese President Xi Jinping has insisted that the investigation will have to wait for the epidemic to end.

Meanwhile, Miss Wang says she intends to continue trying to find answers to questions about her brother's death. He insists that warnings from the police to remain silent will not stop him. "I am a law-abiding citizen," she says. They did not allow us to publish their full names, not because they could pose a threat to the authorities, but because they could be protected from harassment online.

Four months after Wang Fei's death, Miss Wang recently told her mother how the tragedy happened.

The family feared that their mother would not be able to cope with the trauma, and they let her know that their son was being treated in quarantine. In the end, he couldn't hide anything. "My mother couldn't sleep for days," says Miss Wang. A woman who was born before our country came into being cannot understand how such a tragedy could occur in modern times.