“Not having access to the field is a major obstacle”
Étienne Decroly, research director at CNRS, specializing in the mechanisms and replication of emerging viruses.
To discover the origin of SARS-COV-2, it is necessary to be able to investigate around the areas of emergence of the disease in humans: it is necessary to have access to blood banks, to certain data and samples frozen in hospitals. . In the event that Covid-19 is a zoonosis (a disease from animals and transmitted to humans, Editor’s note), it is also necessary to be able to take samples from animals in markets, in regional farms or in wildlife, in order to trace the chains of transmission and identify the parent virus.
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There are currently two hypotheses as to the origin of the virus: that of a zoonosis and that of an accidental escape of virus manipulated in the laboratory. Without scientific evidence allowing us to identify the initial chain of transmission, the question is under debate. Whatever the answer, establishing the origin of the coronavirus means giving yourself the means not to be faced with the emergence of a similar epidemic in a few years.
Zoonoses are characterized by species crossing: the virus is transmitted from a wild animal to a farm animal, then to humans. This chain of transmission can be broken by identifying intermediate species, and by setting up monitoring systems. This is what is happening in France with avian flu: when cases are detected in a farm, precautionary slaughter of poultry is systematic.
In the event that the parent virus of SARS-CoV-2 has accidentally escaped from a lab, it is just as important to be able to set new safety standards. But we must also ask ourselves the question of the risk associated with experiments which consist in producing chimeric viruses in the laboratory. Can these experiments continue when there is no international supervisory authority, as is the case with nuclear power?
Preventing the emergence of a new virus therefore requires international coordination. Putting in place biosecurity measures only at the national level, in France, would not protect the country from the arrival of the virus via borders, and overly restrictive legislation would risk relocating researchers’ experiments to countries with less restrictive standards.
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This virus does not leave a long-term trace in the human or animal genome, as it can with HIV, so we only have a window of time of a few years to identify its origin. In other words, the more time passes, the less likely we are to identify it. And we are already very late. The fact that the WHO does not have the necessary skills to investigate the pandemic also raises questions. Not having access to the field is a major obstacle to finding the origin of Sars-CoV-2.
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