India to Relax Export Ban on Anti-Malaria Drug; China Reports No New Deaths for First Time in Months; Investigating the Origins of COVID-19.
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. India is relaxing its ban on the export of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. U.S. President Trump has promoted this drug as a possible treatment for COVID-19 even though there is no definitive evidence to back that up. He said on Sunday there could be retaliation if India didn't release the U.S.'s supply of the drug. And for more I'm joined now by CNN producer, Vedika Sud. She is in New Delhi. Good to see you again, Vedika. So what more are you learning about India's decision to lift this ban?</s>VEDIKA SUD, CNN PRODUCER: Well, this ban was in place on Saturday along with 14 other drugs. The focus has been on hydroxychloroquine as well as Paracetamol. But we're hearing now from the foreign ministry that issued a statement that after considerations of internal usage uses of the drug, they can go ahead and export. So pharmaceutical companies can go ahead do that. But this will essentially be for neighboring countries as well as countries who have been badly affected by HCQ. Just a word -- I've just spoken to a few doctors on the significance and the reason why HCQ is important. It is, like you said, Rosemary, an anti-malarial drug. It is also used for diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and also has anti-viral agents. In some cases in India as some doctors have told me this is used by front line health workers as I speak to you, and that's why it is something that the U.S. is also looking for. Also this was very easily available in India until a month ago over the counter and it was pretty reasonable to buy. But now the foreign ministry has made it very clear that immediately they will be monitoring the supply of this drug to other countries as well -- Rosemary.</s>CHURCH: All right, many thanks to Vedika Sud bring us up-to-date on that lifting of the ban. Appreciate that. Well, China appears to have reached a turning point in its fight against the coronavirus. On Tuesday health officials reported no new deaths from the virus for the first time since January and now with the outbreak seemingly under control, China has been slowly allowing people back on the streets. But as David Culver reports, experts are warning that the country still faces serious risks.</s>DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Photos taken over the weekend at this popular mountain hiking trail in eastern China show crowds of tourists standing barely six inches apart, forget six feet. Most wearing facemasks as they venture out of lockdowns and into nature enjoying a three-day Qingming holiday weekend. Seemingly comforted that the government has gotten the novel coronavirus outbreak under control despite warnings from health officials that the risks still linger. When we arrived in shanghai mid-February, popular this is what the popular Bund looked like. Only a few locals strolling the Riverwalk. Today we walked that same stretch and we were not alone. Standing in the same spots you'd struggle to think of this metropolis as 24 plus million was essentially shut down at the beginning of the year and now it is bustling once again. A couple of months ago we walked Nanjing Road in the midst of an outbreak. Stores open but empty. Here was my observation at the time. Notice the lack of crowds behind me. Sure, you've got a few folks that are out and about, but the vast majority of people still don't feel like as though they're coming onto the streets. (on camera): But that was two months ago. Look at the difference now. You can see the crowds building up behind me. People less and less fearful of venturing out and resuming life in this new normal. (voice-over): We went back to the same shops. The employees no longer desperate for customers. Local shanghai residents even hopping on board a tour bus. Ana Xu taking her 11-year-old daughter around the city. Schools still closed, consider this a field trip. They've adapted to the new mode of at-home learning. But Ana and her daughter ready for this long break from school to end. (on camera): Almost four months?</s>ANA XU, SHANGHAI RESIDENT: Yes, yes,</s>CULVER: That's unbelievable. Is it hard to have everybody at home at the same time? Yes. Yes. Yes.</s>CULVER: That's unbelievable. Is it hard to have everybody at home at the same time?</s>XU: Yes, yes, yes.</s>CULVER (voice-over): And while there is comfort to see restaurants filling up again or families having a picnic at local parks or kids being kids playing with friends, you've got to wonder, is it all happening too fast? Will this continue? Or might another wave of the outbreak send life here back inside? David Culver, CNN, Shanghai.</s>CHURCH: David Culver with that report. Now based on what we know so far, it appears the virus originated around the Chinese city of Wuhan, but we don't know much else. Conspiracy theories abound of course and experts are divided about what science can tell us at this point. CNN's Drew Griffin reports on the race to find an answer.</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Because we don't know where the novel coronavirus came from yet, the conspiracy theories fill the void.</s>RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I'm telling you, the Chicoms are trying to weaponize this thing.</s>GRIFFIN: Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, with zero proof, suggesting a Chinese bioweapon lab is to blame. A Chinese official tweeting -- it might be U.S. Army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. But to find the real source of this pandemic, it's best to leave it to science. CNN has spoken to a half-dozen virus hunters, who right now say anyone who claims they know the exact source of the novel coronavirus is guessing. Did it come from bats? Most likely. Chinese researchers have already determined the coronavirus is 96 percent identical at the whole genome level to a bat coronavirus. 27 public health scientists from across the U.S. and the world wrote this letter in the journal "Lancet" condemning conspiracy theories and citing scientific evidence, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, that supports the theory that overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, as have so many other emerging pathogens.</s>PETER DASZAK, PRESIDENT, ECOHEALTH, ALLIANCE: The common thread is wildlife. These pathogens emerged from wildlife.</s>GRIFFIN: One of those scientists is one of the most preeminent virus hunters in the world, Peter Daszak.</s>DASZAK: Because we'd been doing this work in China for 10 years, we had a whole series of genetic sequences of viruses we have found with our colleagues. So, when they got a new virus in people because of COVID-19, they could compare it to what they'd seen in bats. So they knew straight away this is likely a bat origin virus.</s>GRIFFIN (on camera): And because it has that 96 percent comparison rate to what was actually in a bat, that's why you're saying it's very, very likely this did come from a bat, although we don't know what this -- where this strain actually came from?</s>DASZAK: We're very confident that the origin of COVID-19 is in bats. We just don't know where exactly it originates. And that's what we need to do now.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): It is a genetic detective story. Researchers will trace the virus that is killing thousands to a yet-to-be-captured bat in the wild, to a potential animal that became the crossover vehicle for COVID-19. Yes, the virus could have transferred directly from bat to human, but most likely, says Daszak, it was bats infecting farmed animals, the animals brought to market alive, and kept with people in one of the most perfect incubators for viral infection, the Chinese wet market.</s>DASZAK: This huge diversity of animals lie in cages on top of each other, with you know a pile of guts that have been pulled out of an animal and thrown on the floor. And as you walk toward the stalls, you slip on feces and blood. These are perfect places for viruses to spread. But not only that, people are working there. People are coming in and buying animals. They're chopping them up in front of you. And kids are playing there. You know, families almost live there.</s>GRIFFIN: It's called zoonotic spillover. Professor Andrew Cunningham, with the Zoological Society of London, has studied them for decades.</s>ANDREW CUNNINGHAM, ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON: Wet markets, these live animal markets, are certainly a very good way of, if you like, trying to get a virus to spill over into people from wildlife. They're susceptible to getting viruses or other pathogens from the environment or from other animals that they wouldn't naturally come into close contact with, again, because they're stressed. And then they can become virus factories. And they're in close contact with human beings in the markets, and they're butchered in the markets, and by people in relatively unhygienic conditions.</s>GRIFFIN: Other researchers point to reports from China that some of the earliest cases were not associated with the wet market. And then there's this theory, widely debunked, this paper from two Chinese researchers that says it is plausible that the virus leaked accidentally from one of two labs near the Wuhan seafood market. After an uproar and heated denials by the Chinese government, one of the authors told "The Wall Street Journal" the paper had been withdrawn because it was not supported by direct proofs. Experienced virus hunter Daszak and Cunningham say the theory is bunk.</s>DASZAK: People don't keep bats in captivity. Complete baloney.</s>CUNNINGHAM: We don't need to invoke conspiracy theories. It's just basic biology.</s>GRIFFIN: Tensions between the U.S. and China over the origins of the virus and accusations of misinformation from both sides are slowing the work of the virus hunters, who are grounded by the same travel restrictions that have crippled the world. That is concerning, because without knowing where it came from, there is still a chance that original host species is spreading it.</s>DASZAK: If there was a so-called intermediate host, an animal that the bat virus got into, and then allowed it to get into people, the virus might still be in that host. Now, there are hundreds, thousands of these animals and farms, and maybe the virus is still there. So, even if we get rid of the outbreak, there's still a chance that that virus could then reemerge. And we need to find that quickly.</s>CHURCH: Drew Griffin with that sobering report. Still to come on CNN. Crisis on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what we train to do and this is what we signed up for, just not in this volume.</s>CHURCH: We will have an exclusive look inside one New York City emergency room battling the virus. That's just ahead. Plus, the most senior Vatican official ever convicted of child sex abuse is now a freeman. Details on the ruling from Australia's high court. That's coming up as well. END