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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaPeople & Culture

Scientists debate whether Wuhan coronavirus came from bats or snakes amid joint US-China effort to develop vaccine

  • Experts from three American institutes are collaborating with a team from Fudan University in Shanghai to develop a vaccine
  • Meanwhile academics in China and UK question research that links its origins to two common species of snake

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The first close-up images of the Wuhan coronavirus were released on Friday. Photo: Chinese Centre For Disease Control And Prevention
Laurie Chen
Chinese and American researchers are working together to develop a vaccine against the deadly new strain of coronavirus amid a growing international debate about whether it came from snakes or bats.
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At present, there is no cure for the virus which has pneumonia-like symptoms and is contagious among humans. Officials have told hospitals to quarantine any suspected patients and their close contacts.

So far it has killed 26 people and infected hundreds across mainland China.

The World Health Organisation on Thursday stopped short of declaring the virus a global public health emergency, despite China’s climbing death toll. The virus had spread to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States as of Thursday. Japan on Friday reported a second confirmed case.

Experts from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, the University of Texas, the non-profit New York Blood Centre and Fudan University in Shanghai are collaborating on the project, Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor College’s National School of Tropical Medicine, told state news agency Xinhua.

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“[Vaccine] development is not a fast process, and it’s not clear whether we would have a vaccine ready to use before this current epidemic ends,” Hotez was quoted as saying. He added that there were likely to be more cases in the US.

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