据英国《每日电讯报》5日报道，牛津大学循证医学中心汤姆·杰斐逊博士认为，新冠病毒可能并非源自于中国，而是早已“潜伏”在世界各地，并于特定的环境下被激活。 The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 may not have originated in China but could have been thriving in a dormant stage in the environment for decades, according to researchers. 杰斐逊举例说，有一艘从南乔治亚岛开往阿根廷首都布宜诺斯艾利斯的邮轮，当时所有乘客都接受了新冠病毒筛查，然而在第8天，邮轮上出现了首个确诊病例。会不会是食物被解冻时病毒被激活了呢？ 同时，他还提到，在1918年，西萨摩亚约30%的人死于西班牙流感，但这些人与外界没有任何联系。 杰斐逊认为，这类情况的解释只能是，“病毒并没有‘跑来跑去’，而是一直存在于各个地方，只是在特定条件下被激活了。” "I think the virus was already here, here meaning everywhere. We may be seeing a dormant virus that has been activated by environmental conditions," said Dr. Tom Jefferson, an honorary senior research fellow at the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM), University of Oxford. The agents don't come or go anywhere, said Jefferson. "They are always here and something ignites them, maybe human density or environmental conditions." 目前，已有越来越多的证据显示新冠病毒在亚洲暴发之前，就已经在其他一些地方出现过踪迹。（点击查看此前报道：又双叒叕提前了！我们与新冠病毒的“邂逅”，比你想的早多了……） 当地时间2日，巴西研究人员宣布，早在去年11月，巴西圣卡塔琳娜州首府弗洛里亚诺波利斯的下水道中就存在新冠病毒。这比拉丁美洲确诊首例病例的时间早了3个月；此前，西班牙的病毒学家称他们在2019年3月的废水样本中检测到了新冠病毒的存在；意大利的专家也表示，在北部城市米兰和都灵2019年12月的废水样本中检测出了新冠病毒的遗传物质。 Dr. Jefferson believes the virus may be transmitted through the sewage system or shared toilet facilities. /Reuters Moreover, Brazil lately reported finding the novel coronavirus in the sewage samples from last November in Florianopolis. Previously, Spanish researchers detected the coronavirus in samples taken from wastewater collected in Barcelona in March 2019, and their counterparts in Italy also found traces of the virus in the sewage of Milan and Turin last December. 杰斐逊认为，研究病毒是如何起源和变异的十分重要。他认为，新冠病毒不仅通过飞沫传播，还可能通过下水道系统或公共厕所等设施传播。 他和另一名牛津大学的专家还指出，新冠肺炎疫情更容易在诸如食品工厂或肉类加工厂这样的地方暴发，也说明了这是一个值得探索的传播途径。他们认为，这些地方的公共卫生设施，加上阴冷的环境，容易让病毒滋生。 他们指出，“有很多证据显示各地的污水中都存在大量病毒，而且越来越多证据表明病毒可以通过粪便传播。4°C的污水中病毒浓度很高，这说明这是病毒可以稳定存在并可能被激活的理想温度，而肉类加工厂的温度通常也在4°C。” 这两名来自牛津大学的专家也因此呼吁对新冠病毒展开深度溯源，“需要对这些病毒暴发案例进行逐一调查。要向人们提出质疑，并据此构建符合事实的假设，而不是反着来。” Also, as clusters of the virus developed in food factories and meat packaging plants, Jefferson and Carl Henegehan, director of the CEBM, think there are new routes of transmission, which may be transmitted through the sewage system or "shared toilet facilities coupled with cool conditions that allow the virus to thrive." "There is quite a lot of evidence that huge amounts of the virus in sewage all over the place, and an increasing amount of evidence there is fecal transmission. There is a high concentration where sewage is four degrees, which is the ideal temperature for it to be stabled and presumably activated. And meatpacking plants are often at four degrees," the two experts wrote. They called on researchers to study the ecology of the virus. "These outbreaks need to be investigated properly with people on the ground one by one… You question people, and you start constructing hypotheses that fit the facts, not the other way around," they added.