There is still no answer as to how the pandemic began, but there have been many hypotheses. Some hypotheses are that the virus originated from a bat. Others claim that it originated in a laboratory, where it was released accidentally or with human help.
Danish researcher Thea Kølsen Fischer was part of the WHO team of ten experts who went to Wuhan, China in January this year and today she has a hypothesis that she leans most towards.
In a recent interview with TV2, Thea Kølsen Fischer says that at a hospital in Wuhan she was introduced to the man who had been designated Patient 0, and reportedly it all started with him.
“The expectations were sky high, and the hope was that we would get some clues as to how he could have been infected,” Thea Kølsen Fischer, head of research at North Zealand Hospital says.
The interview with Patient 0 however did not provide the definitive answer but based on the international team’s conclusions from the mission, Thea Kølsen Fischer says, “The underlying hypothesis is that the corona pandemic occurred in the same way as SARS occurred in 2002 and 2003 – namely jumped from a bat to an as yet unidentified intermediate host animal and from there to humans, she explains.
This is why WHO is now sending a new international team with 25 experts back to Wuhan including Thea Kølsen Fischer where they will have to investigate more.
Although according to the research group, it is most likely that it all started with a bat, Thea Kølsen Fischer believes that it is still important to confirm or disprove the other hypotheses.
“We must work on several strings at the same time, so we can get as close to what happened as possible,” the Danish head of research says.
