Expert: Tracing origin of the novel coronavirus is a scientific issue

In response to online speculation that the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic may originate from Fort Detrick lab in the U.S., a Chinese expert said that virus origin tracing is a scientific issue that requires in-depth research by scientists from different countries.

"We have noticed relevant information on the Internet… The U.S. has made no public responses to the issue and we have no way to make a judgment," Shi Yi, a researcher at Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at a press briefing on Thursday.

"Origin tracing of a virus is a scientific issue, and its main purpose is to prevent the recurrence of similar epidemics," he said, calling on all countries to focus their energy and attention onto the key works of epidemic prevention and control while COVID-19 is still raging all over the world.

"It is a scientific problem that takes a long time to tackle and there also exist uncertainties. Only by integrating abundant biological information and epidemiological evidences into mutually verified evidence chains can we truly complete the task," he noted.

He said that, currently, scientists from different countries are conducting research to find the origin of the virus and have proposed many hypotheses. Chinese researchers are also working on that to provide a scientific basis for global prevention and control efforts.

Shi Yi, a researcher at Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, speaks at a press conference ./CGTN

Will COVID-19 be contained as the weather gets warmer?

Many people wonder whether warm weather would suppress the coronavirus, and thus the pandemic would wane as summer approaches.

The expert offered his analysis from two aspects – the nature of the virus and how it spreads. First of all, Sars-CoV-2 is an enveloped coronavirus, which is relatively sensitive to temperature, and warm weather is not conducive to its survival, he said.

But in terms of transmission routes, the novel coronavirus mainly spreads through droplets and direct contact, which are less affected by temperature. And countries in the Southern Hemisphere are currently in summer and autumn, where the epidemic is also spreading. Therefore, how warm weather can affect the pandemic remains a subject for study.