Outbreak in Wuhan shows that lessons from seventeen years ago are forgotten - David Lung and Yuen Kwok-yung, University of Hong Kong 

[On Mar 18 2020, Professor David Lung at the University of Hong Kong and his colleague Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a world-renowned expert in microbiology and infectious diseases, withdrew their op-ed in the Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao, in which they elucidated the origin and naming of the Wuhan Coronavirus, and criticized "inferior Chinese culture" for being the origin of the present pandemic. This led to allegations that the Chinese and Hong Kong governments are covering up the truth and suppressing academic freedom. Below is an English translation of this op-ed. Please spread the word and expose the truth!]

Outbreak in Wuhan shows that lessons from seventeen years ago are forgotten - David Lung and Yuen Kwok-yung, University of Hong Kong [translated from Chinese]

The novel coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan in Winter 2019, and engulfed the entire province of Hubei by Spring 2020; the number of cases in China grew to over 80,000, with at least 3,000 deaths. The outbreak in China slowed down only after a month-long lockdown, which has failed to curtail the spread of the disease overseas by March 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) was sluggish in response and failed to declare this a pandemic in a timely fashion. Shortage of relevant measures and protective gear around the world contributed to the global outbreak. Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, and the Republic of China have so far been spared of the pandemic, though cases linked to overseas travel have yet to cease.

This pandemic is caused by a coronavirus, thus named because of its shape. From 2015 onwards, the WHO has ceased to name diseases using monikers for people, places, animals, food, culture, or occupations. As such, they labeled the disease using the year of the outbreak; thus the designation COVID-19. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) used viral genome sequencing as the sole criterion for the naming of viruses; because the similarity between the genetic sequences of the SARS coronavirus and the present novel coronavirus, which therefore is not truly "novel", the ICTV designated the novel coronavirus as "SARS-CoV-2.0". Media organizations and the public call this the Wuhan Coronavirus or the Wuhan Pneumonia; this is perfectly fine because of its simplicity.

There has been heated debate over the naming of the pandemic. As a matter of fact, the disease is named by the WHO and the virus is named by the ICTV; the common name is purely a customary matter and suffices to serves it purpose as long as it is simple and clear. The official names of COVID-19 for the disease, or SARS-CoV-2 for the virus, must be used in scientific and academic discourse. However, the simplicity of the popular designations "Wuhan Coronavirus" and "Wuhan Pneumonia" are far more conducive to daily communication and conversations in the media.

The 2020 pandemic originated in Wuhan

Roughly 75% of novel diseases can be traced to wild animals; the ancestral virus from which several mammalian coronaviruses descend can be traced to bats or birds, both of which can fly over a distance of several thousands of kilometers to the location of first discovery of the virus. As such, the nomenclature of viruses may utilize the name of the location of discovery. The most accurate and objective means to identify the origin of the virus is to isolate the virus from the animal host. However, the Huanan Seafood Market had been cleared, and live wild animals vacated, by the time researchers had arrived for live samples. Consequently, the identity of the natural and intermediate hosts of the coronavirus is unclear. According to local personnel, the wild games in the Huanan Seafood Market are shipped and smuggled from various locations in China, Southeast Asia, and Africa; it remains impossible to identify the ancestry of the Wuhan Coronavirus.

Viral genome sequencing shows a 96% similarity between the Wuhan Coronavirus and the viral strain RaTG13 found in bats, lending credence to the belief that the RaTG13 strain is the ancestral virus for the Wuhan Coronavirus. This viral strain can be isolated from the bat species Rhinolophus sinicus found in Yunnan, China; thus bats are believed to be the natural host to the Wuhan Coronavirus. Epidemiological studies show definitively that the Huanan Seafood Market was the amplification epicenter, where the transmission of the virus from the natural host to the intermediate host likely occurred, before a mutation to a form that can adapt to the human body, followed by human-to-human transmission.

The identity of the intermediate host remains unclear; viral genome sequencing, however, reveals a 90% similarity between the spike receptor-binding domain of the Wuhan Coronavirus and of the coronavirus strain found in pangolins. While uncertainties remain for us to unambiguously identify the pangolin as the intermediate host, it is extremely likely that the pangolin coronavirus strain donated the spike receptor-binding domain genetic sequence, or even the entire gene section, to the bat coronavirus strain, culminating in the novel coronavirus upon DNA shuffling.

Wild animal market: the origin of numerous viruses

The SARS outbreak in 2003 can be traced to Heyuan prior to engulfing Guangdong and ravaging Hong Kong. The SARS Coronavirus was found in the masked palm civet; China has subsequently outlawed the sales of live wild animals. Seventeen years later, wild animal markets have instead grown unabashed, in flagrant violation of the law. The Chinese people have forgotten the lessons of SARS in their entirety. The glaring appearance of live wild animal markets in city centers, and the egregious acts of selling, cooking, and eating these wild animals, constitute a stunning and blatant disregard for the laws. The feces of these wild animals carry large concentrations of bacteria and viruses; the crowded set-up, the poor hygiene, and the proximity of different animal species are extremely conducive to DNA shuffling and genetic mutations. As such, these markets need to be banned outright.

Remodeling of markets is key to the prevention of epidemics. The Chinese and Hong Kong governments must promptly improve the set-up of markets by enhancing ventilation and getting rid of rats and pests. Before the elimination of all live poultry markets becomes a reality, animal feces found in these markets must be handled properly to lower the chances of genetic shuffling between viruses.

Internet conspiracies of an U.S. origin of the virus is not supported by facts, and only serves to mislead the public. The dissemination of conspiracy theories needs to stop. Transparency is first and foremost in the fight against an epidemic; we need cool heads and rational analysis in place of hearsay and falsehood. The failure to close all live wild animal markets post-SARS was a colossal mistake; to win the battle over the pandemic, we must face reality, and not repeat the same mistakes while leaving the blame upon others. The Wuhan Coronavirus is a product of inferior Chinese culture -- the culture of recklessly catching and eating wild animals, and treating animals inhumanely, with an utter disrespect and disregard of lives. This inferior culture of the Chinese people -- specifically the consumption of wild animals to satiate themselves -- is the true origin of the Wuhan Coronavirus. If these habits and attitudes remain in place, SARS 3.0 will certainly happen in a matter of a decade or so.

Translation by：一個窮科學家移民美國的夢幻故事