generalspeaking: Life in Wuhan, China Carries On ...

Monday, December 14, 2020

Life in Wuhan, China Carries On ...

"Most scientists studying the origins of COVID-19 have concluded that the SARS-CoV-2 virus probably evolved naturally and infected humans via incidental contact with a wild or domesticated animal. But a few persistent voices, including respected microbiologist and biosafety advocate Richard Ebright, PhD, continue to highlight circumstantial evidence suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a biohazard laboratory in Wuhan, China. Such an escape might have occurred via accidental infection of a lab worker who came into contact with the isolated virus, an infected lab animal, or animal waste.

For now, we cannot definitively rule out either origin story—a lab accident or a natural animal-to-human transmission. Determining the origins of this pandemic is unlikely to help current efforts to treat and cure the disease. It could, however, be an important determinant for efforts to prevent future outbreaks."
"Most arguments in favor of the lab accident theory are based on geography. Wuhan, the site of COVID-19’s first reported cases in late 2019, is also home to two of China’s most advanced biological laboratories. The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) has come under special scrutiny because it hosts China’s only biosafety level 4 lab facilities."

"Ebright, a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and current laboratory director at Rutgers University, is the most prominent scientist espousing the possibility of a lab escape. He raised biosafety concerns about WIV when it opened in 2017, as did Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting. Ebright has long opposed the expansion of preventative research into dangerous pathogens, and he views the possible lab escape of SARS-CoV-2 as strong support for that position."
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

"It certainly couldn't have been Wuhan ... surely another person brought it in. Or surely it came from some other product brought from outside."
"There were just certain conditions for it to appear here."
Chen, wet-market vendor, Wuhan, China

"The first cluster of cases was there, so at least it would be of interest to find out the origin of those and put forward a few hypotheses, like whether it's more likely from the wild animals or perhaps points to a human super-spreader."
Jin Dong-Yan, professor of virology, University of Hong Kong

"There is new evidence to show that China locked down all domestic traffic internally by end January 2020 but pushed to open foreign travel till end March. Data from Tom Tom traffic index, a traffic location site that covers 416 cities across 57 countries show that as a result of this strategy, China, intentionally or otherwise, was able to lockdown its cities unknown to the world. While this reduced the spread of the Corona virus within China, China’s aggressive foreign travel policy lead to a virus explosion worldwide."
Sandip Sen, The Economic Times, April 30, 2020

Tourists wearing face masks line up outside the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, China on September 3.

HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/AFP via Getty Images

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China where vendors set up their wares in small stalls was a popular place for individuals to shop as well as local restaurant owners who would start their day by passing through the market to pick up fresh-caught fish and bring it back to their restaurants to begin the day's menu preparations. Most Asian cities have such live markets, Tokyo, Japan has a large celebrated market, Ueno district's Koromon market, where crowds of shoppers converge on the market to sample live fish. These markets are part of the food culture, a part of daily shopping life.

On December 31, 2019, four cases of a mysterious type of pneumonia appeared at local Wuhan hospitals and were linked to the Huanan market and overnight it was no longer open for business, taking shoppers by surprise the following morning. A month later, the city went into a strict 76-day lockdown on hours' notice, barring people from leaving their homes. A severely restrictive move that represented the start of a hugely successful gambit to control the new virus's spread. Hubei Province itself was border-shuttered to the rest of China.

Travelers walk through the main hall of the Hongqiao Railway Station in Shanghai on Jan. 18. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

On the other hand, China kept its national borders open so Chinese could celebrate the Lunar New Year as usual, and the population spread out in its customary holiday travel pattern as millions of Chinese travelled back to their home cities and provinces in a tradition as important to the Chinese as Christmas is to Westerners. A massive human migration takes place as individuals travel back to their hometowns. People in China are estimated to make close to 3 billion trips over the 40-day travel period, or Chunyun, of the Lunar New Year holiday. It's estimated that 5 million people left Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic before the travel ban of January 23, 2020. An estimated million Chinese went abroad, to Europe and elsewhere during that period.

The disease spread rapidly throughout China and to neighbouring countries. Despite the aberration of the massive migration for the Lunar New Year celebrations, China and its neighbours then cracked down on their populations, enacting draconian social distancing laws and total lockdowns. Their success in bringing the internal spread of the disease following a massive infection rate in China which led to hastily built hospitals to handle the load and patients being isolated in massive temporary quarters with cots lined up one after another in proximity to one another, did succeed in eventually quelling the massive outbreak.

Which then spread to Europe, devastating the continent which is now grappling in desperation with its second and third waves of the domineering recurring nightmare. Globally, over one-and-a-half million people have died of the effects of SARS-CoV-2. Initially, Beijing had bristled at the global community's attempts to close their borders to Chinese visitors, claiming the move was clearly racist in nature; even the World Health Organization supported China's umbrage, chiding the rest of the world for their reaction. The United States now hosts a ravaging beast of a pandemic.

When both Beijing and the WHO came under criticism, particularly from the U.S. administration, both bridled and responded they had each acted with alacrity to stem the tide of the viral contagion, acting with due respect and regard to public safety globally. China took further umbrage when the virus was referred to as the China virus, and the WHO came up with a neutral designation for the scourge. To their credit, Chinese scientists released to the world at large the genetic sequence of the virus, enabling scientists elsewhere to get on with research to find a vaccine against the virus.

In Wuhan, the city is once again 'normal'. But the wet market remains closed, the stalls shuttered. The origin of the virus remains a topic of fierce political and scientific enquiry. Beijing circulated the claim that the virus originated elsewhere, in Spain or Italy, and was then brought to China where it surfaced to appear as the origins of the virus. Residents of Wuhan certainly don't believe the virus really originated there, but was brought to the city by travellers. When a second wave erupted in China, a strain of the virus brought back by Chinese returning from trips abroad again, it gave impetus to the notion that the virus originated abroad.

Beijing and the United States continue to spar with one another along with other countries, accused by China of bias against the Chinese. Even yet, a team of World Health Organization experts has still to visit Wuhan to gather information. Origin-tracing efforts, warn health authorities in China and elsewhere, could take years and in the end inconclusive results may be yielded. More recently Chinese diplomats and state media claim their belief the market was not the origin of the virus but the victim of the disease, which originated somewhere other than China.

According to experts the market is critical to any investigation, unlikely to be dismantled even though the bulk of the research would rely on samples sored immediately following the outbreak. Access to the market area is heavily restricted. The bustling building with its hundreds of stalls sectioned off into areas for red meat, for seafood, and for vegetables is now quiet and abandoned. Local government has placed traditional Chinese paintings over the semi-permanent blue barricades the area is encircled by. Wooden boards line the interior stalls and windows.

Chinese tourists crowd together on the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China in Beijing on October 4, 2020. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

"A report issued by a Shanghai-based online travel agency said people from over 100 Chinese cities had booked to travel to nearly 500 destinations across over 90 countries and regions."
"Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore are among the most popular destinations while Nordic countries, the United Arab Emirates and Spain have seen the fastest growth of Chinese visitors".
"Traveling schedules covering cultural sites or winter sports that can be enjoyed by a big family are the most popular choices, indicating that Chinese are willing to enjoy high-quality travel experiences."
"Lvmama, another Shanghai-based online travel agency, said in its latest report that more convenient transport, easier visa application procedures and Chinese people's upgrading demand for leisure were major factors in China's booming outbound tourism."
"In 2018, 140 million Chinese traveled outbound, marking a year-on-year increase by 13.5 percent, according to the China Tourism Academy."
XinhuaNet, December 13, 2019

Wuhan has not reported any new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 since May. A local restaurateur speaks of the market's closure and public panic over the safety of imported seafood, increasing the cost of ingredient procurement substantially. Above the empty, closured market, shops reopened in June selling optometry equipment and eye-ware. Guards at the upper entrance to the market take temperatures, warning that no videos or photos may be taken inside the building. "Maybe some people have some bad feelings about it, but now it's just an empty building ... who feels anxious about an empty building?" a shop assistant remarked.