Speaker 1: Welcome the prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day sixty nine
Speaker 1: since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Our main story.
Speaker 1: Scientists have determined that the virus first showed up in
Speaker 1: bats in southern China, but just how it jumped from
Speaker 1: bats to humans isn't yet clear. That uncertainty has allowed
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories to bubble up, some of them promoted at
Speaker 1: the highest levels of government. But first, here's what happened today.
Speaker 1: US President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw altogether from the
Speaker 1: World Health Organization. If he made good on the threat,
Speaker 1: it would leave Chinese leader Jijang Ing as leader of
Speaker 1: the global fight against the pandemic. Trump posted a four
Speaker 1: page letter detailing his grievances with the WHO to Twitter
Speaker 1: late last night. In the letter, he called on the
Speaker 1: group to demonstrate independence from China. He gave no other
Speaker 1: details about the reforms he was seeking or what specific
Speaker 1: changes might unlock funding. Researchers from the Korean Centers for
Speaker 1: Disease Control and Prevention are finding evidence that even though
Speaker 1: some patients have tested positive for the coronavirus after recovering,
Speaker 1: those people aren't capable of transmitting the infection. That's a
Speaker 1: positive sign for regions looking to open up as more
Speaker 1: patients recover. It suggests those who have recovered from COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen present no risk of spreading the coronavirus. Finally, the
Speaker 1: US and Canada will keep their borders shut to non
Speaker 1: essential travel for another month. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Speaker 1: and President Donald Trump announced the extension of the border
Speaker 1: closure to June one at separate events in Ottawa and Washington.
Speaker 1: The agreement to restrict travel between the two countries, which
Speaker 1: has been in place since March, was due to expire
Speaker 1: this week and now our main story. The Internet has
Speaker 1: been teeming with theories, some of them pretty wild, about
Speaker 1: the origin of the coronavirus. Scientists have been saying for
Speaker 1: more than three months now that the coronavirus most likely
Speaker 1: originated in a species of bat found in the south
Speaker 1: of China and managed to somehow jump into people, but
Speaker 1: alternative explanations have been floated. U S Secretary of State
Speaker 1: Mike Pompeo has repeatedly blamed China, and specifically a laboratory
Speaker 1: in Wuhan that was researching dangerous viruses. Bloomberg Senior editor
Speaker 1: Jason Gale talked to a World Health Organization scientist to
Speaker 1: tease out the most plausible explanation for where the virus
Speaker 1: came from. How and where the SAS CoV two virus
Speaker 1: emerged isn't known. Scientists have a rough idea, but pinpointing
Speaker 1: the exact way the virus came to spread in humans
Speaker 1: is crucial for preventing it from happening again. Dr Peter
Speaker 1: ben Embrick is a scientist with a w h O
Speaker 1: in Geneva who has investigated the source of numerous outbreaks,
Speaker 1: including bird flu and the coronavirus that causes Middle Eastern
Speaker 1: respiratory syndrome. I asked Peter what proof exists to demonstrate
Speaker 1: the genesis of the virus that causes COVID nineteen. We
Speaker 1: know that it's closely related to a group of other
Speaker 1: coronaviruses that have their origin in bad population, so that's
Speaker 1: why we're talking about this bad link or bad origin.
Speaker 1: What we know is that in previous similar events, these
Speaker 1: bats coronaviruses before they jumped to humans, first adapt in
Speaker 1: another animal species that is more closely related to humans
Speaker 1: and with whom humans have more regular contacts, which is
Speaker 1: allowing that time and space that is needed for the
Speaker 1: varrus to adapt to two humans. So we have some
Speaker 1: kind of missing link in that story between the original bats,
Speaker 1: origin of the virus, and when it started to circulate
Speaker 1: in humans. Many of the first cases and Workhan were
Speaker 1: linked to a massive seafood and fresh producce market in
Speaker 1: the city. It's like a farmer's market. In Asia, they're
Speaker 1: called wet markets. This particular market sold a variety of animals,
Speaker 1: including some wild ones that shoppers could buy live and
Speaker 1: have prepared ready for cooking. When STARS, or severe acute
Speaker 1: respiratory syndrome emerged almost twenty years ago, it's thought to
Speaker 1: have originated in bats and jumped into civets, a small, lean,
Speaker 1: mostly nocturnal mammal, fore crossing the species barrier a second
Speaker 1: time and infecting humans. Wet markets in southern China were
Speaker 1: implicated in the emergence of STARS, so it was reasoned
Speaker 1: the Wuhan market is where SARS Cove two might have begun. Now,
Speaker 1: the evidence suggests that COVID cases occurred before there was
Speaker 1: a definite link to the market. The market might just
Speaker 1: have been a place where the virus was amplified and
Speaker 1: spread readily amongst storeholders and shoppers and the people with
Speaker 1: whom they lived. With the market theory and doubt. Alternative
Speaker 1: explanations have circulated. One is that the coronavirus was created
Speaker 1: in a wa lab where it was either deployed as
Speaker 1: a bioweapon or accidentally escaped into the community. One of
Speaker 1: the reasons that theory has gained traction is that the
Speaker 1: Wuhan Institute of Virology has a so called bs L
Speaker 1: for or maximum bio Containment facility, where it studies some
Speaker 1: of the planet's most dangerous pathogens, including coronaviruses. The laboratory
Speaker 1: in in one is is well known for its research
Speaker 1: on these viruses, on bat viruses, coronaviruses, original anything that
Speaker 1: they have done, so they are they are famous in
Speaker 1: a way for that work and for improving our understanding
Speaker 1: of coronaviruses and the relations with bat and the evolution
Speaker 1: over time. Peter and I spoke over Zoom on May seven.
Speaker 1: I wanted him to explain the alleged circumstantial evidence linking
Speaker 1: the lab with the outbreak. What evidence is there that
Speaker 1: the virus might be synthetic, might be man made, What
Speaker 1: evidence exists for that none to give you a clear answer.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen a single piece of evidence that would
Speaker 1: indicate a hint towards a man made, constructed virus, he says.
Speaker 1: Scientists have studied the genetic sequences of the coronavirus in detail.
Speaker 1: All agree that the virus is natural and has not
Speaker 1: been hooked up in a lab. And the reason for
Speaker 1: why they are so clear in their conclusions is that
Speaker 1: if it was a constructed virus, we would recognize or
Speaker 1: see the bits and pieces that were used to construct
Speaker 1: this virus. It's a little bit like constructing a car
Speaker 1: with legal legal bricks. You would recognize the different bricks
Speaker 1: at the end. Another reason is that the protein the
Speaker 1: virus uses to enter ourselves and cause an infection in
Speaker 1: our lungs is unique. It's different from the one that
Speaker 1: the SaaS virus used back in two thousand and three
Speaker 1: and hadn't been previously described. If we talk about science fiction,
Speaker 1: everything is possible. And if somebody had constructed this virus
Speaker 1: and had been able to avoid all these counter arguments,
Speaker 1: I just put forward that would have been a genius
Speaker 1: in somebody like he as ahead of everybody else in
Speaker 1: this field. So again no strong arguments at all for
Speaker 1: the man made versions. Scientists are able to look at
Speaker 1: the mutations that occur each time the virus replicates to
Speaker 1: gauge the period and which it began circulating in humans.
Speaker 1: Peter says around October November is when it started to adapt,
Speaker 1: and in fact, people tracing the IRUs back to its
Speaker 1: roots means finding the earliest cases and determining where and
Speaker 1: how they might have been infected. Right now, there's nothing
Speaker 1: to determine how the virus go from bats into people
Speaker 1: and if another mammal acted as an intermediate host and
Speaker 1: what that animal might have been, But some intriguing signs
Speaker 1: are emerging from cats. So far, we've studied several animal
Speaker 1: species to see how susceptible they are to this virus
Speaker 1: and whether they could be playing a role in the
Speaker 1: in the events, and cats and feelines seems to be
Speaker 1: specious that is most susceptible to the virus and so
Speaker 1: they can get sick, but they can also transmit the
Speaker 1: disease to other other cats. And then the big question
Speaker 1: is can an infected cats also transmitted to humans and
Speaker 1: could they have been playing a role at the start
Speaker 1: of this of this event that remains to be seen,
Speaker 1: but it's it's a it's a possibility that is being explored.
Speaker 1: But it's also show importance of protecting our pits and
Speaker 1: protecting animals in the same way that we protect humans.
Speaker 1: When we have a confirmed case of COVID, that that
Speaker 1: person should be isolated and family members and colleagues and
Speaker 1: also pits or animals in connection in close contact with
Speaker 1: this person should also be protected so we avoid creating
Speaker 1: another reservoir for this virus in different animal population. The
Speaker 1: pandemic has identified some gaps in our understanding of the
Speaker 1: pathogens lurking in nature. That's especially the case that the
Speaker 1: human animal interface, where viruses risk crossing the species barrier
Speaker 1: and spreading among people. Peter says we can fill some
Speaker 1: of those gaps through better surveillance and traceability of farmed animals.
Speaker 1: He also says that regardless of whether the web market
Speaker 1: and Wuhan was where the first person was infected, we
Speaker 1: need to improve these kinds of food markets around the world.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of markets where people have tradition
Speaker 1: to purchasing live animals that are then slaughtered on the
Speaker 1: spot or nearby, and these practices, unfortunately often done with
Speaker 1: in poor hygienic conditions and with unnecessarily close contact between
Speaker 1: the public and the sellers and the animals. So that's
Speaker 1: and where animal species are mixed together and kept in
Speaker 1: pages for a long time, and all that gives, of course,
Speaker 1: these viruses much better chances to adapt and to jump
Speaker 1: and to infect humans. And if if hygiene and safety,
Speaker 1: addressibility and surveillance and so on, we're in place um
Speaker 1: and and well in forth. So it's important to keep
Speaker 1: to keep these markets, but it's equally important to improve
Speaker 1: them and and make them safe and hygiene. If the
Speaker 1: current cry has taught us anything it's that as human
Speaker 1: populations expand and encroach on wildlife habitats, the risk from
Speaker 1: dangerous animal viruses continues to grow. And in an interconnected world,
Speaker 1: epidemics that were previously localized can race around the globe
Speaker 1: with blinding speed. It means everyone everywhere has a stake
Speaker 1: in doing whatever we can to mitigate this threat. That
Speaker 1: was Jason Gale in Melbourne, and that's our show today.
Speaker 1: For coverage of the outbreak from one bureaus around the world,
Speaker 1: visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like
Speaker 1: the show. Please leave us a review and a reading
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Speaker 1: help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily
Speaker 1: Edition is produced by Tophah foreheads Jordan Gaspoure, Magnus Hendrickson,
Speaker 1: and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by
Speaker 1: Jason Gale. Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are
Speaker 1: Francesca Levi and Rick Shine. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head
Speaker 1: of podcasts. Thanks for listening.