世卫组织：武汉不一定是新冠出现跨物种传播的地点
Dr. Michael Ryan(L), executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Emergencies Program, addresses a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 18, 2020. /Xinhua
8月3日，世卫组织召开新冠肺炎例行发布会，世卫组织卫生紧急项目负责人迈克尔·瑞安表示，中方专家提供了初始阶段调查信息和检测材料，做了大量出色的科研和监测工作，还需进行更广泛的回顾性流行病学研究以了解病例间的联系，并确定是在武汉或是其他地方，发生了新冠病毒打破动物与人类之间物种屏障进行传播。
同时，迈克尔·瑞安强调，武汉有专门针对非典型性肺炎的监测系统，从而发出了预警，但并不意味着武汉就是新冠病毒出现跨物种传播的地点。
Although the first clusters of atypical pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, China, it doesn't necessarily mean that is where the COVID-19 disease crossed from animals into humans, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Monday.
Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, said at a routine COVID-19 briefing on Monday that a much more "extensive retrospective epidemiological study" should be taken to fully understand the links between the cases.
He stressed the need to start studies on the first reported human clusters in order to systematically look for the "first signal at which the animal-human species barrier was crossed," before moving to the studies on the animal side.
The WHO advance team that traveled to China in preparation for an international mission of identifying the zoonotic source of COVID-19 has concluded its mission recently, according to the WHO expert. Future studies will build on the initial investigations done by Chinese experts around the Wuhan seafood market.
Ryan also noted that WHO is moving forward with agreeing on the international team and ensuring that right expertise will be in place to work with the Chinese counterparts to design and implement further studies.