The United Nations Office at Geneva
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Press conference WHO: Covid-19 Zoonotic Origin
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35:05
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EDITED STORY SHOTLIST
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Dr Peter Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert, WHO: “All these preliminary studies and interviews and collection of data and so on will help pinpoint both in time and in geographic terms where to look for the source; and it could be again, in this case, it could be again around the markets in Wuhan, but it could also be outside or further out, and therefore, there is no point jumping and starting to testing animals all over the place before having done this groundwork.”
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Dr Peter Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert, WHO: “We’ve learned a lot about the disease and we know that the vast majority of cases have no or mild symptoms so it would not be surprising if at that time there were a lot of mild cases that were undetected because we didn’t even know they were mild cases at that time. And that could explain how some of the people who had no link with the market could have been infected…”
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Dr Peter Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert, WHO: “What would be of great help is if we could get hold of the virus before it adapted to humans, before the version we have now, because then we would better understand how it adapted to humans, how it evolved and what are the changes in the make-up of the virus that most likely did this adaptation. Because now we can see different structures of the virus, we can see mutations sometimes, but we don’t really understand which mutation is critical and which one is less critical; because they are mutating all the time and in 99 per cent of the case this mutation means nothing and we have to understand the critical ones.”.”
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Dr Peter Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert, WHO: “It’s not too late, and as I said for the MERS virus, it took about a year before we found the source. So it’s never too late but it’s important that we try to find the source and understand what happened at the start of the event to avoid a repeat of this event and to avoid another spillover event in coming years with other different viruses.”
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Dr Peter Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert, WHO: “But the vast majority can be fixed, can be better organized, because it’s often a question of waste management, it’s a question of people movement and goods movement, it’s a question of separating live animals from animal products and from products that are fresh and cooked products, it’s a question of separating fresh fruits and vegetables from meat products or from live animals. It’s a question of separating the public from the live animals and the people vending and slaughtering these animals; so it’s more about management than regulations and inspections and cleaning and disinfections.”
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Dr Peter Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert, WHO: “Cats and these felines are susceptible to the virus; studies with cats have also shown that cats can also transmit the disease to other cats, so this is a group of animals that is interesting to look at, because they are susceptible to the virus. Ferrets have also been shown to be susceptible to the virus, dogs to some extent, but not as efficiently and other species, like domestic species, like pigs, like poultry, chicken and turkey and the like do not seem to be susceptible to the disease, which is good news because we are producing and raising these animals on a very large scale.”
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Dr Peter K. Ben Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert, WHO: “There has been discussion about mosquitos and whether other animals could transmit the virus and that’s not the case. These viruses have very specific affinities to certain animal species and again to their ability to attach and infect specific cells of different species. They cannot at all invade and infect particular animal species so it’s not like can invade whatever they touch or move into.”
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Dr Peter Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert, WHO: “China has most probably and most likely all the expertise needed to do the investigations; they have a lot of very qualified researchers to do that, but as I said, it is often useful sometimes to have discussions and collaborations with groups and with researchers and with people from all over the world who have had, gone through similar events and similar studies and have things to share, have experience to share and that has always enriched and improve the speed and quality and likelihood of success of these very complex studies.”
Virus hunters continue search for animal link to COVID-19 infections in people
The key work of tracing the animal transmission source of the COVID-19 coronavirus infection in humans is ongoing and must be carried out to prevent future health emergencies, a top UN health agency scientist said on Friday, after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed more than 3.5 million cases of infection and 250,000 deaths globally.
Since the respiratory disease emerged in central China in late December, health officials have raced to locate where and how the virus was first transmitted from its animal host to humans.
It is believed that a now-closed Wuhan city wholesale market “played a role” in the outbreak, said Dr Peter Embarek, Food Safety and Zoonosis Expert at WHO, but it is not clear if it was the source.
“All these preliminary studies and interviews and collection of data and so on will help pinpoint both in time and in geographic terms where to look for the source; and it could be again, in this case, it could be again around the markets in Wuhan, but it could also be outside or further out, and therefore, there is no point jumping and starting to testing animals all over the place before having done this groundwork.”
In a videoconference with journalists, Dr Embarek highlighted the fact that many people showed few or no symptoms of infection with COVID-19, likely contributing to the outbreak’s rapid spread.
“We’ve learned a lot about the disease and we know that the vast majority of cases have no or mild symptoms, so it would not be surprising if at that time there were a lot of mild cases that were undetected because we didn’t even know they were mild cases at that time. And that could explain how some of the people who had no link with the market could have been infected.”
In previous coronavirus outbreaks, such as the MERS episode in 2012, finding the missing animal-human link has been far from easy, even though “everybody was looking for the source”, Dr Embarek explained.
In the end, it took months of epidemiological detective work and a slice of “luck” before the transmission link to camels was found, after health officials in Qatar reported two suspect cases linked to a farm, which were followed to confirm the link to the dromedaries.
“It’s not too late, and as I said for the MERS virus, it took about a year before we found the source,” Dr Embarek said. “So it’s never too late but it’s important that we try to find the source and understand what happened at the start of the event to avoid a repeat of this event and to avoid another spillover event in coming years with other different viruses.”
He added: “What would be of great help is if we could get hold of the virus before it adapted to humans, before the version we have now, because then we would better understand how it adapted to humans, how it evolved and what are the changes in the make-up of the virus that most likely did this adaptation. Because now we can see different structures of the virus, we can see mutations sometimes, but we don’t really understand which mutation is critical and which one is less critical; because they are mutating all the time and in 99 per cent of the case this mutation means nothing and we have to understand the critical ones.”
Echoing calls for stronger health controls on wet markets - a common feature of daily life throughout Asia - Dr Embarek noted that the “vast majority can be fixed, can be better organized, because it’s often a question of waste management”.
He added: “It’s a question of people movement and goods movement, it’s a question of separating live animals from animal products and from products that are fresh and cooked products, it’s a question of separating fresh fruits and vegetables from meat products or from live animals. It’s a question of separating the public from the live animals and the people vending and slaughtering these animals; so it’s more about management than regulations and inspections and cleaning and disinfections.”
Concerning the transmissibility of infection to various animals that regularly come into contact with humans, the WHO official noted that “cats and (these) felines are susceptible to the virus; studies with cats have also shown that cats can also transmit the disease to other cats, so this is a group of animals that is interesting to look at, because they are susceptible to the virus. Ferrets have also been shown to be susceptible to the virus, dogs to some extent, but not as efficiently and other species, like domestic species, like pigs, like poultry, chicken and turkey and the like do not seem to be susceptible to the disease, which is good news because we are producing and raising these animals on a very large scale.”
He also said that the new coronavirus could not be transmitted by mosquitos and parasites.
“There has been discussion about mosquitos and whether other animals could transmit the virus and that’s not the case,” Dr Embarek said. “These viruses have very specific affinities to certain animal species and again to their ability to attach and infect specific cells of different species. They cannot at all invade and infect particular animal species so it’s not like can invade whatever they touch or move into.”
Asked about the level of WHO collaboration with Chinese health authorities into tackling COVID-19, he responded that “China has most probably and most likely all the expertise needed to do the investigations; they have a lot of very qualified researchers to do that.”
At the same time, he noted that it was “often useful sometimes to have discussions and to have collaborations with groups and with researchers and with people from all over the world who have had - gone through - similar events and similar studies and have things to share, have experience to share and that has always enriched and improved the speed and quality and likelihood of success of these very complex studies.”
Teleprompter
All right, I think we have to go ahead.
I'm talking off screen.
Thank you very much everybody for joining.
It's the first since 8 weeks for me.
So thank you all for joining and listening in.
This is Christian Lintman, and I'm very happy here to have, as you can see in in front of you, Doctor Peter Ben Embarrick, who's our expert for food safety and scornosis.
Good morning.
We thought it's really timely to walk you through some of the zoonotic origins discussions and the possible link of course to traditional food markets.
So we want to discuss all all of this.
And then of course, after a few introductory remarks, we'll be happy for your questions and I'll hand over to Peter.
Thank you, Christian, and good morning, Good afternoon to everybody.
Yes.
Today we would like to discuss the zonotic origin of this virus and how it relates to other similar events we've seen in the past and and better understand how these events happen and the possible links to to our food supply and the traditional food markets.
SASCO V2 belongs to a group of virus coronaviruses that have their ecological origin or natural environments in bat populations and and they once in a while jump over to humans through sometimes different other animal species and adapt to humans and and and cause disease in humans.
We've seen that in in the past with the with the first SARS virus back in 2003 where it also originated from an intermediate animal host.
At that time it was seaweed cats as you perhaps remember.
And these were farmed and and and sold as food and entered our food supply.
And we also in 2012 had the appearance of the MERS virus, another coronavirus in the Middle East.
And after sometimes we made the link to close contact with with camels in the region and that's how people got MERS from contact with camels.
And we have seen other similar events also with different bird flu, influenza viruses, H5 N 1H7, N 9 if you remember, and a few others, all were originating at that interface between animals and humans where we have close contacts with animals and Ebola Reston a few years ago was another example of that link to contact with, with pigs.
So it's, it's not unusual to have these events.
But of course, this one is totally unique in the scale and size of how it have, how it has impacted public health and and our daily life in recent months.
So a rather unique event in in that respect.
But the origin of it is, is not very unique.
And we have seen several of these events.
And as I said in the beginning, there are generated at this interface between animal and humans where we have close contact with animals and that's typically in the process of raising or farming or hunting animals for food.
So as part of our food supply.
So they are not passive food borne disease, classical food borne disease you get through consuming food, but they get to humans through our contact with animals while preparing or raising them for food.
So if if in the way of food related disease, but not the food borne disease.
And these happen of course in also both in, in farm environment, but also in markets environment where we handle and and buy and sell live animals or animal products for food.
And unfortunately we have neglected traditional food markets over several decades with more and more people moving to cities and cities growing all over the world.
Traditional food markets have somehow got forgotten in the process and in our expansion and they are often therefore overcrowded in poor conditions.
Maintaining hygiene and safety, food safety in these environments, it's rather difficult.
And therefore, it's not surprising that sometimes we also have these events happening in within markets.
And therefore it's critically important that following this, this event that we, we, we pay more attention and, and give more attention and resources to improving our traditional food markets, because they play a huge role in our societies.
They have, it's a place providing fresh and affordable food for millions of people across the world, not only in developing countries, but also in, in developed, more developed part of the world.
So it's a, it's also a setting that has a social importance.
People gathered where mingles and meet their friends and and and relatives and neighbours.
So it's a it's, it's a place that that play a role and is very important for us as societies, both in, in, in urban environment, but also, of course, in, in, in more rural settings.
I think I will stop here and open up for questions.
Thank you very much, Peter.
And of course, we're inviting for question.
Now I'm looking at the screen for raising your hands, please.
This way we can identify who will be up and I have 3 already and I can ask Jean Marco, please.
Let's start with Jeremy Launch, please.
Radio France, can you hear me?
All good.
All right, thanks.
Thanks for for taking my question.
Just a quick one, maybe I missed something here, but I don't think you mentioned you ever mentioned Wuhan so far.
So this is what we're talking about.
So considering what you just said, do you acknowledge that this the source Cove came from Wuhan?
I mean, how much confidence do we have now that the virus is coming from this particular food market?
Is it 100%?
Is it 99%?
What can you say about that?
Nearly all of the ones who raise their hands have on that's here.
Thank you and very good question indeed.
And what we, what we know so far is that as, as, as we know that the, the, the first human cases were detected in and around Wuhan.
And if you remember back in December, that early January when the first cases were detected and reported, these were severe cases.
And the majority of them had contact with wholesale markets in Wuhan either because they were working there or, or visiting that market often or using it as as a, as a source for food as we just discussed.
But also some of the earlier cases did not reported any contact with the with that market.
So we also know that the samples were taken in these markets afterwards and studies were conducted there.
And the virus was samples, some of the samples turned positive for the SAS to a virus.
So the market must have played a role somehow either as the source of the outbreak or an amplifying setting, meaning a setting where the virus was introduced by maybe some of the sick individuals at the at the beginning.
And then because they were mingling and, and, and having close contact with other people in the market, the virus spread in that crowded environments.
That's also another possibility, but we don't know for sure one or the other.
We also don't know if it was the source of the outbreaks, meaning the first animals who had the virus perhaps were brought in that market, or whether it was an infected person who brought the virus in that market and what role the market had that we don't know yet.
It's also important to note that you remember the beginning.
We had, as I said, only detected severe cases.
And at that time, that was how we define COVID-19.
COVID-19, it was a severe disease, respiratory diseases.
But since then, we've learned a lot about the disease and we know that the vast majority of cases are very mild or have no symptoms.
So it would not be surprising that at that time there was also a number of very mild cases that were undetected because we didn't even know that there were mild cases at that time.
So, and, and that could explain how some of the people who had no link with the market could have been infected.
They could have been infected through some of these mild undetected cases.
So the picture in itself is not surprising with the knowledge we have today.
And, but again, we don't really know what happened exactly at the start of the outbreaks.
And and that's why we we still have a lot of fun on on this.
Thank you very much.
And we'll move on to Goonilla.
Goonilla, please.
Thank you.
I'm a Swedish journalist.
Tanska Doglauder, Thanks for taking my question.
I have a follow up.
And you said it's likely to that it came from the Wuhan market.
What animal do you think it came from?
And do you think there should be a global ban on wildlife markets?
The Chinese ambassador told us the other day that there has been a ban.
Now there is discussions about a ban, but how credible is this and how could it be controlled?
If there is a ban, how can it be controlled?
So obviously, it's three questions in one.
I'm sorry.
Thank you, Ricky.
Yes, we again, we don't know if the market is the source, a likely source or or or where it's somewhere else, but the market played a role in in the event that's clear.
But what role we don't know whether it was a source or an amplifying setting or or just a coincidence that some cases were detected in and around that market.
But usually, as I said in the beginning, these diseases have a link to to animals and are typically jumping between species and that's how they they end up in, in adapting to humans.
What species animal species might be involved in this case?
We still don't know.
There have been a number of studies already looking at different animal species, susceptibility to the virus to see if these animals could be infected with the virus and whether they could transmit the virus.
Because that would give us some clues about which animal could could be the source of or could be involved in the in the start of this event.
It's also important to understand which of the animal species we are in daily contact with, whether our pets or our farmed animals could be susceptible to the virus.
Because we don't want to create another new reservoir in the in animals that could later on continue to create infections in humans.
So it's important in in many ways to understand which and what animal species are susceptible for the virus.
So far the studies conducted have shown that felines including cats and and also tigers, you perhaps have heard about the the events in the zoo in New York, cats and these felines are susceptible to the virus.
Studies with cats have shown that the cats can also transmit the disease to other cats.
So it's this is a group of animals that is interesting to look at because they are susceptible to the virus.
Ferrets have also been shown to be susceptible to the virus, dogs to some extent, but not as efficiently and other species like domestic species like pigs and poultry, chicken and Turkey and the like do not seem to be susceptible to the disease, which is in fact good news because we are producing and raising these animal on a very large scale globally.
But beyond that, they still need to look at other species, both the wild and farmed, in particular species that are traditionally used and brought to these markets and and try to isolate that that source particular to avoid having a repeat of the event later on in weeks or months or years if we don't understand, identify and manage that animal source.
I'm not sure if I have answered all your questions.
Otherwise, please remind me of the last one.
I think we're we're pretty good.
If I missed something at the end, we'll come back.
But we have a last list of questions and we of course have a short hard stop because we need to go into the UN press.
So we're moving on with question.
The next on my list is John, Sarah Costas.
John, please go ahead.
Yes, good morning.
Peter.
I was wondering to when did you get the first live samples WHOIOE and FAO from what was at the time the epicentre which is basically the Wuhan area.
And I think the there was a lot of research there on bats from caves around the Wuhan area where I think the genetics frequency showed a 96.2% match.
I've got a specific question.
Is it possible from a contaminated bat that the lice from the bat could contaminate?
We first of all, we don't receive live samples here in WHO.
We don't have labs in WHO, even though that has been portrayed in many, in many dramatic movies over the years.
Unfortunately, we, we, we don't have that an exciting life in our offices.
But we facilitate the, the sharing of viruses between labs across the world and the sharing of DNA sequences through open global databases.
So researchers across the world can study that, compare and work on these sequences and, and share the experiences and the analysis.
And that's how we advance globally our knowledge of these viruses.
So the, the, the, the first sequence of the virus as you remember where shared very quickly in January.
Remember that within within a couple of weeks, we went from a situation where we had the new disease, unknown disease, to a situation where we had identified the the, the disease.
It was new coronaviruses.
We had done a sequence, total sequence of the genetic makeup of the virus.
We had shared these sequences with the world and did and developed test kits and test for this virus.
So incredible speed this time with a totally unknown virus just a couple of weeks before that and that has that would have been impossible just a few decades, a few years ago.
We have now the tools and the techniques and the collaboration that the international level to achieve that speed.
And it's, it's it's really a remarkable achievement that we've achieved globally on this.
With regards to the to the bat question, all the coronaviruses that have closely related to to our SAS COV 2 virus, the COVID-19 virus have been isolated from bats.
And therefore over the years in fact.
And therefore it's it's there is a a global consensus that our virus is also originating from bats population at some point in in in in the past.
The different strains that are known and where sequences are available around the world in in these open global databases show a relation and closeness with SARS COV 2, but none are that close to be able or to to help in identifying the the the exact origin close means they belong to a larger group.
The closest one we have to our virus is is apparently a strain of coronaviruses isolated from the bats in southern China a few years ago.
But and the the SARS, the original SARS of virus from 2003 is a little bit less related but still closely related.
While the MERS coronavirus from the Middle East from starting 2012 is also closely related, but even further away in the genetic tree.
So they're all somehow related, but they are not.
They still have distance between them and that reflects the huge diversity of these viruses in nature and the difficulty to to exactly link them up, so to speak, at this stage.
Thank you.
I think one of the questions from before from Gunilla, we haven't quite followed yet and which is also interesting in the whole context is what about the markets?
Gunilla asked specifically about the ban of the markets, but maybe we can go a bit into hygiene and recommendations for the markets.
Thank you.
Just before that, Christian, I forgot to answer the last question of the previous journalist on the the possibility of ******** and lice on the best to transmit the virus.
Again, that will be looking into a totally different species and whether that species would be able to to to transmit the the virus and to our acknowledge or the parasites.
And for example, also there have been discussion about mosquitoes and, and whether other animals could transmit the virus.
And that's not the case.
These viruses have very specific affinities to certain animal species.
And again, through the ability to attach and infect to specific cells of different species, they can or cannot at all invade and infect particular animal species.
So it's not like.
They can invade whatever they they they touch or or move into.
So they are always very specific pattern and and niche for these viruses.
With regards to the markets, yes, as I said they are some of them are unfortunately across the world have been left in, in neglected for four years, poorly regulated and poorly managed.
And therefore it's, it's **** time that we develop better regulations, better management structure for these markets.
Some of them, as we all know would would not be able to be easily fixed because the infrastructure or the, the, the the conditions are not, would not allow for that and will be much easier to to close them down and and rebuild a new, a new market there or elsewhere.
But the vast majority can be fixed, can be better organised, because it's often a question of waste management, is the question of people movement and goods movement.
It's the question of separating live animals from animal products and from other fresh and cooked products.
It's a question of separating fresh fruits and vegetables from meat products or live animals.
It's a question of separating the public from the live animals and the, and the people vending and slaughtering these animals.
So it's, it's, it's more about management and regulations and inspections and cleaning and disinfections than anything else.
And therefore they can, they can be, they can be fixed.
And we have done that in different project.
We have shown together with other colleagues in in and partners both in FAO and Hawaii and other international partners that this can be done.
And it's, it's, it's not a question of closing all these markets or just letting them unmanaged.
It's, it's about taking care of them and and managing them and regulating them.
Let's not forget, after all, these are the livelihoods for millions and millions of people around the globe and of course, the the source of, of market products all around the world.
Yeah.
Thank you, Peter.
We're moving on to AFP on my next list.
Robin, Mia.
Yes.
Good morning.
Hello there.
What do you need to do to find out what role the market played and what the intermediate animal host might have might have been?
Is it, is it necessary to go there?
And if so, the sooner the better.
Thank you for for this question.
It's, it's these these studies into the source of of these new emerging viruses is, is often complicated process.
We have done that in the past few years ago, you remember with the MERS viruses that emerged in 2012, for the first months and the first almost first year, everybody was looking for an animal source or for the source of, of where people were getting infected.
They were getting infected on regular basis in, in, in, in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, in the Emirates and other place.
They were also exported to many other countries in the world.
So everybody was looking for the source and he talks about almost a year before we made the link to, to camels.
And that was a combination of traditional studies, epidemiological studies and also a little bit of luck.
At that time.
We we had a call from Qatar one day saying, look, we have two cases, 2 human cases linked to a farm.
We think that there is something on that farm.
Let's have a look at it.
And we went there and, and, and, and found and made the link with the and with, with camels.
And that was confirmed later on by other studies in, in other countries in the regions.
So it's often a question of, of doing this groundwork in terms of epidemiological studies, interviews of early patients, interviews of people who have been around these early patients, either family members or people working with them or where they have moved and worked and, and, and so on, what markets they've been, whether farmers or, or hunters have been involved and so on.
So it's it's about interviewing a lot of people about searching for clues with the aim of narrowing down both the geographic and time environments where we would believe or think that the the event started.
Because there is no point going to the first, the first obvious place.
Let's say the wholesale market in Wuhan or, or wherever you identify your first cases and start looking for everything and start testing for everything that is moving in in that area.
Because chance that you, you will miss totally is is quite big and, and is when you start sampling and testing a lot of animals, for example, it's, it's timely and resource demanding effort.
And you don't want that unless, unless you have a pretty good understanding that the source is where you're looking at and you're just trying to identify which of the animal in that regions is.
So all these investigate preliminary studies and interviews and collection of data and and so on will help pinpoint both in time and in in in geographic term where to look for the source.
And it could be again in this case, it could be again around the markets in Wuhan, but it could be also outside of further out.
And therefore there is no point jumping and starting to test animals all over the place before having done this groundwork.
And of course, it's, it's, it's, it's good to, to base these studies on, on what has been done already understand what has been done, what data have been collected and also learning from past experiences in other similar events around the world.
Again from the most studies in the Middle East, from the Ebola restaurant studies in in the Philippines in in about 10-12 years ago, the first investigation around the Sarso region in 2003, some of the birth flu investigations over the years, so and some of the Ebola studies done in several places in Africa.
So we have a lot of good experience around the world that we can drag on both in terms of understanding the, the dynamic of these viruses and the dynamic of movements of animals as well.
And also how people react when you interview them.
Sometimes they are scared.
Sometimes you, you need to use a particular approach to get the best out of of them.
So it's, it's, it's not that easy and it's, it's, it's, it's time consuming.
It's not too late.
It's, as I said, for the MERS virus, it took about a year before we, we found the, the, the source.
So it's, it's, it's never too late and it's but it's important that we, we try to, to, to find the the source and understand what happened at the start of the event to avoid a repeat of this event and to repeat to avoid another spillover event in the coming years with other different viruses.
Thank you.
Peter, I see we have roughly 5 more minutes left and I have a lot of questions or hands up still.
Can I ask you because we won't get through all of them to quick have quick question and I'm asking Peter to be short and quick in the answers.
So we get through most of the questions at least My next on the list is Christiana Errish.
Christiana, please.
Hello, Christiana.
German press agency.
My question is technical, is it important to have the live virus for this, for research or is it enough to have the sequence?
Because we are not sure whether China has shared life virus.
But I'm also not sure whether that is really necessary.
And I would like to know whether who has to rely on all of this material, all the studies from China or do you have your own investigators who are doing their own research?
Thank you.
It's it's, it's critical these days to have the sequence of viruses because that's how we can understand the make up and the evolution of the virus.
So it's always good to have the the live virus because you can then do the sequencing.
But the sequencing is is also is the most useful part of it.
What is important, what will be of great help is if we could get hold of the virus before it adapted to humans, before the version we have now.
Because then we will better understand how it adapted to humans, how it evolved and and what are the changes in the make up of the virus that that most likely did this adaptation.
Because now we can see different structure of the virus.
We can see mutations sometimes, but we don't really understand which mutation is critical, which one is less critical because they are mutating all the time.
And, and in 99% of the cases, this mutation mean nothings.
And we have to, to understand the critical ones for in terms of investigations, China has most probably and most likely all the expertise needed to do these investigations.
They have a lot of very qualified researchers and, and, and to do that.
But as I said, it's, it's, it's very useful sometimes to have discussions and to have collaboration with groups and with researchers and with people from all over the world who have had gone through similar events and similar studies and have things to share, have experience to share.
And that we've always enriched and improve the, the, the, the, the speed and quality and the, and likelihood of success of this type of very complex studies.
Thank you very much, Peter.
And I think we're coming to the last question.
I'm looking at the time and that is on the list.
Gabriella Sotomayor.
Gabriella, please.
Yes, thank you so much for taking my question.
I'm Gabriela Sotomayor, Mexican journalist, and there are voices that say that the origin of the virus is in a laboratory near the market.
So taking into the account that the virus comes from an animal, could it be that the animal was inside the laboratory that is a few metres from the market where tests were done on coronavirus, HIV vaccine, etcetera?
Could that be a possibility?
And then you mentioned that with MERS, you, you went a lot during one year to a Middle East, to Qatar and everything.
So is there any obstacle on the part of China to be able to go freely to do your research in Wuhan and so on?
I mean, it's important.
Thank you.
Thank you for this.
Yes, there have been a lot of stories of course, because this is an exciting event and and of course everybody wants to try to understand how and we ended up with this, this event as we know it today.
The laboratory that are working with coronaviruses typically would not work with with animals.
They will identify or, or detect or take samples from different animal species and from there, once in a while they will detect coronaviruses and then they will study in the laboratory these these viruses and then they will compare with existing viruses.
They will publish in articles the result of their research and so on and, and work with other partners who are also studying some of these similar viruses.
So that's how research in in these viruses usually is conducted.
When you bring animals into laboratories, it's more when you do susceptible studies in special laboratory where you, you, you in control environments, you infect animals to see if they can get infected and how they can transmit the virus.
So that's different type of laboratories who are doing that.
And with regards to to the, what was the second question?
Sorry.
Can you about the second part, can you repeat the second part?
Sorry, we need Gabriella quickly for the second part that you were when MERS you you did a lot of research in the in the zone in these countries.
So do you think that you have to go to China and is there an obstacle from part of China to go to your to do your research?
Thank you.
Thank you for that.
And yes, it's, it's interesting of course, to, to, to conduct these and participate in some of these studies, but it's not a must that the whole world should be doing all the studies together at the same time.
I mean, it all depends on the country's own resources.
It all depends on the, on the local conditions.
So it's, it's, it's, it's not a must that that everybody participate in these studies.
As I said, it's, it often brings a richness and enrich the, the, the, the discussions and sometimes can facilitate some of the, of the, of the studies, but it's, it's not a must.
And I'm pretty sure that if and when, and we have seen that already over the past months that when there are questions and when there is collaboration possible, it's happening.
And I haven't seen any, any, any problems in, in that so far with China or with other countries in the area.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And we're very timely.
1015 on the clock.
Sorry for not being able to take more of your questions, but we will otherwise get punished by the parlay for because they need to prepare for the briefing we're having in 15 minutes.
I think Doctor Peter Benemberek very much thank you all for listening in and hear more of you later.
Thank you.
Bye.
Thank you.