Hundreds of animals swabbed in the mission to find Covid-19 origin

April 2, 2021 – The World Health Organization on Tuesday presented the people of the planet with the report on the investigation into the origin of the SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 virus and over the 120 pages, one thing is very clear – the joint team tested thousands of animals but still have no clue where precisely the virus came from. 

The world’s sharpest minds were recruited and included senior professionals in epidemiology, data science, laboratory, food safety, animal health and veterinary epidemiology from 10 member countries including the UK, USA, Sudan, Japan, Germany, Viet Nam, the Russian Federation, Denmark and Australia plus 17 experts from China who between January 14 and February 10 visited 10 sites only to reveal there is still no clue about the start of this pandemic.

The Coronavirus has led to 128 million people being infected, 2.8 million deaths including 17 recorded in the Turks and Caicos Islands.  

Intriguing was that the virus, which is believed to have caused the earliest symptoms on December 8, 2019 in Wuhan may have been spread mainly by children.  Charts in the report indicate, children under 15 were highest for symptoms in the latter part of December 2019 in the Chinese province.

Hospital visits and over the counter medicine purchases surged during the period informed the report. 

Also interesting, that bats are not the conclusive source and that it could be some stolen Malayan pangolins or farmed minks or stray cats which caused the spillover infection, which is the transmission of the virus from animal to human. 

The kinds of animals tested for the virus were many including 188 species at the Huanan Market in Hubei.  Snakes, hedgehogs, pigs, turtles, rats, mouse, rabbits, a sheep, wild boar, weasels, chicken, dogs and crocodiles were all swabbed and tested; they were all negative for Covid-19. 

It was the same result for the test results of 26,807 animal samples retroactively collected and tested from 24 provinces between 2019-2020 in China.  

The study was labelled “fascinating” and “exciting” by its lead, Dr. Peter Embarek, who asked for patience amidst pressure from journalists at the press conference, held virtually.  The global media core was incessant in its quest for conclusive findings on the origin of the virus, but the curious were repeatedly told it may take many more months, even years before the precise starting point is determined. 

Head of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus commented that the theory suggesting coronavirus could have been cooked-up in a lab and escaped the premises is not off the table, though all sides have suggested that scenario is “unlikely”.  

The point of the investigation into the pandemic is to find out what happened, why it happened and to prevent it happening again.