SCIO press conference on China's study of origins of SARS-CoV-2
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 14, 2023
ITV News:
I want to just follow up on that question about the WHO claim. You seem to suggest that you have been open and transparent throughout, so as you mentioned, do you think it's purely political? Are these accusations [political]? And finally, I'd like to ask you about the recent study that you have produced regarding raccoon dogs suggesting that they could have been an intermediate host potentially for the virus. Thank you.
Tong Yigang:
I don't think the accusation is scientifically grounded. As Prof. Zhou just mentioned, the Chinese expert team worked together with the expert team sent by the WHO for about a month during the first phase of joint research. They engaged in numerous scientific discussions and reached many conclusions, which I believe are all science-based and having been widely accepted after been published online. Regarding the recent data that identified the raccoon dog as a possible source of the virus, there is currently insufficient evidence to confirm this. Many people are eager to identify how the virus was transmitted and the relevant proof. We share this desire and are working to uncover the virus's origin. To do this, Chinese scientists, as well as researchers worldwide, are involved in this effort. However, the data presented in this article is not enough and not even close. It is a bit like when we constantly imagine how an event happen and speculate about, as the Chinese fable that states that if someone suspects his neighbor of stealing his axe, all the neighbor's behaviors appear suspicious to him. However, if the lost axe turns out to be in his own barn, the neighbor will no longer look like an axe thief. Some people always want to find evidence and will associate anything seemingly related to the case as correlated, thinking that raccoon dogs are the origin. An article published earlier said that some animal samples were found in environmental samples in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. But these samples were mostly human samples and those of chickens, pigs, dogs, cats and various types of poultry. In fact, these animal samples significantly outnumbered those of raccoon dogs. From this perspective, there is not enough evidence. Moreover, many samples were tested at the Huanan Seafood Market, including hundreds of animal samples, but no animals carrying the virus were found. Therefore, it is not enough merely searching for animal samples from the environment and basing conclusions on that. Furthermore, the viral genetic sequences we found in the environmental samples were almost identical to those collected from early patients, suggesting that the samples collected from the environment likely originated from humans rather than animals. There is plenty of evidence of raccoon dog genetic sequences present in environmental samples that tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, and they even outnumbered those samples that tested positive for the virus. The negative samples refer to samples that are free of the target virus. As a result, it's difficult to determine whether the virus originated from raccoon dogs. Besides, even if raccoon dogs were infected, many people at the Huanan Seafood Market were also infected, and therefore, it's possible that people contaminated the environment or the virus spread from people to raccoon dogs. It's a possibility that we can't rule out, even if raccoon dogs tested positive. Therefore, I don't think it's adequate or scientific to draw such a conclusion based on this small amount of data. Thank you.
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