Conversation. The phone lines are open. The death toll is now at 143,000 around the world. Total confirmed cases, 2. 1 one million. Over 675,000 cases in the death toll is over 34,000. We want to introduce you to dr. Peter li from the university of houston. He is an expert on east asian politics and wet markets, which is one of the reasons we invited you one. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate the photos you sent us. You have been to the socalled wet markets, believed to be the source. What are they . They are a small section likee regular marketplace, the Seafood Market. It is a 5 of the business space. Live where you can find chickens on live ducks and they slaughter them for you. It is where you get warm meat. Traditionally, these are everywhere but in the last 40 years, they have been going down. Arisen,w wet market has which is water wet market. In china in the 1980s i never saw these. It is new. , the Seafood Market has a huge marketplace where you can but one corner is called water life wet market. And in0 of the space different you see water animals, legally allowed snakes and also endangered species and animals caught in the wild. It is not a place most people would find enjoyable. That is a place where you can get live animals and they slaughter them for you. Ordinary consumers do not go and the majority of Chinese People do not eat these animals at home. So who goes to these markets . Go to get owners snakes. In the wet markets, you only see 10 of the wild animals consumed. From the warehouse or Breeding Farm to the restaurant. So the wet markets only display for sporadic consumers. Host so based on what china has dealt with in the past with ebola and sars and others, why does the government continue to allow these wet markets to operate . They are clearly one of the primary sources of these viruses. Dr. Li good question. Biggests the worlds wildlife farm in operation. [indiscernible] generated a revenue 70 billion. Is an exotic food market that has been shut down. Of 18oduced a revenue billion. [indiscernible] this is also for Laboratory Use like for monkeys. Is because continue of the alleged economic use. Ibution and medical that is why it is still operating. Host there have been a number of reports that the virus might have been engineered in a lab. This is a headline from u. S. News world report. T came up today on nbc they were asked about reports that this might have come from a lab and the secretary of state is basically telling the Chinese Government to come clean on the source of the virus. What is your reaction . To tell you about the News Headlines on the origin. The Washington Post is reporting the state department sent at least two official warnings about experiments being ,onducted in chinese labs inadequate security, research studying coronavirus. Do you have a view that the likelihood of the virus could have come from a chinese lab . We have been watching this for some time and results are inconclusive. Chinese party had been more transparent earlier, it would have helped us stay ahead of the virus and being to understand the dna and develop vaccines quicker. They need to be more forthright. Do you think the chinese have misled about the origins of the virus . I cannot speak to Intelligence Matters but i find it hard to trust anything that comes out of the Chinese Communist party. They have been misleading us and opaque from the early days of the virus so i do not have much faith they are being truthful now. Host that was from the defense secretary on nbc today. Dr. , can you explain . Forli we had to wait Scientific Community to make a determination and according to scientists,rts from early early reports but of the first group people,e infected, 41 27 had been exposed to the wildlife wet market and a third of the people who died were people who worked in the market. I am not a medical science expert but i have read from different accounts that this is how the virus could jump to a human. Research was the virus started by collecting samples in a cave in china and that is where the host of coronavirus but for that to jump to humans there has to be an intermediate host. Another group of wildlife viruss who can get the through the and intermediate, then jump to humans. The virus could have escaped the wuhan lab then the virus would have to go to a Wildlife Animal to jump to humans. So we have to wait for the Scientific Community to make a determination and it is an interest of all countries to pandemic hasthe arisen. Pandemic is hitting hardest in the u. S. , across asia, and northern and central europe. Li, aest is dr. Peter china policy specialist for Human Society international. Robin is our first caller from new jersey. Questioning what he was talking about, did the virus originate in a lab in china and then got to the people. Host do you want to elaborate on the point, dr. . Wait for thelf to Scientific Community to make a determination but initial show Wildlife Animals sold on the wuhan market. The Chinese Government at the beginning shut down the market and based on scientific input, not because the government wanted to do it. Sars, the look at outbreak in 2002. That epidemic was connected to. Ildlife animals host lets go to sal next in new jersey. Good evening. Believe thatd to this has come just from a wet market. Inant to remind people november 2018, a year before the first case was identified in wuhan, customs and Border Patrol agents at Detroit Metro airport stopped a chinese biologist with three vials labeled antibodies in his luggage and these files contained a middle east respiratory syndrome and a severe respiratory syndrome sars and mers. I had the virus and survived. My wife had it and survived. But the fact is it is hard to believe that even isolated communities like the amish in pennsylvania, that the virus that comes from a wet market spread that rapidly. I find it hard to believe that there is not more to this than what is being said. I do not think it is just from a wet market. Be biologicalld agents being brought into the country. I am just looking at the facts. It is not impossible. I am still recovering. I have a lot of pain. My wifes sons girlfriend died. My wife almost died. When you hear Something Like this and first they said it was a bat or some sort of species from a bat but there is ample evidence. Host good luck to you. Thank you for adding your voice to the conversation. I hope your family is on the mend. Dr. Li i understand the concern and there has been a lot of speculation. We need to stick to the bottom chinesessue but if the government [indiscernible] everything in china is in some way controlled by the government, especially the wildlife reading operation. Wildlife breeding operation. It could not exist without government support. Is hundred percent identified to be connected to the wet market, that is part of the Chinese Government effort to push for modernization so it is still the government. 2010 a top medical scientist attended Chinese Congress and warned the Chinese Government and said this wildlife must be shut down because of sars. Foundntified and marketsrus in two wet in china 10 years ago. In wuhan and hong kong. He said if we allow markets to continue, we are headed toward another pandemic. Host what can you tell us about wuhan and the geographic significance to china . Dr. Li it is in the middle of china. It has been hungry for International Attention but never got it because attention was a long the coast. But it is one of the most developed cities in china. Huge market with 11 Million People. The wethe markets had markets and they store animals from different provinces. The wet market from south china over a great distance. If we focus too much attention theet markets, but actually animals only account for 10 . A large number of Wildlife Animals spend days in a hoarding the breedon farms and snakes. A lot of them are wild. They are in the facility. Wildlife into the breeding and then transporting spendkets in wuhan, they a day on the road in a truck mixed with wild animals and in the market they are all mixed with different wild animals so all of those pieces combined can be a hotbed for cross infection of viruses. Host it is by all accounts a major metropolitan area. The universityom of houston. Dennis is the next caller from illinois. Disagreell respect, i with the doctor on his wet market theory. Book sentinele nyl, inc. , there are a vast number of illicit whoists across the world send illicit drugs to other countries for profits. They are known for that and the reputation is that and i do not think the doctor has mentioned that. If the virus escape lab, it still has to go to Wildlife Animals to be before and those animals getting to humans. Market, you have to have Wildlife Animals for the virus to jump to humans. Host kimberly is next from virginia. Good evening. Isirst question for you china doing anything to make the , and my seconder question is i hear the markets are killing cats and dogs to sell us food. Hateful. Ruel and care,nd cats give love, affection, and compassion to people and i feel they should stop being killed. Dr. Li the Chinese Government market forwn the wet wild animals but i believe this this market should be shut down forever. Are also seen in wet markets for livestock across the country. I sent people to different wet markets in the last two weeks and have seen dogs and cats on the market. The Chinese Government has Just Announced a couple days ago that dogs and cats are companion animals. They cannot be listed as livestock because the industry has been trying to force the government to include them in the livestock where they can be slaughtered for food. Some positive developments in outlined have outlawed wildlife consumption catsonsumption of dogs and and said they are companion animals. So this is the most positive step that has happened. Host our focus is on u. S. China relations, the wet markets, and covid19. Our next caller is danielle from washington. Question is, is this germ warfare . There are a lot of conspiracies going around in the United States and china. There are similar accusations and speculations in china and i , ild say the best we can do am sure scientist will continue to look into the source of the pandemic. Host a headline from the london the chinesells government to come clean over the spread of coronavirus. What does the u. S. Government want when they say, come clean. What did they say china might be hiding . This is awould say new pandemic. It took time for the Chinese Government to make the determination that this was serious. Markethut down the wuhan january 1 and shut down wuhan. Ompletely on the 21st there were International Connections by flights. When china shut down wuhan on the 23rd, china sent a signal to the rest of the world to be ready. Hard for chinais to cover up anything, especially when you have a major pandemic. We are following the situation. Was one of the first countries to shut down the border with china and there was sayingf anger in china what can you expect from north korea . It is a poured country and the poor country and the regime would have collapsed. I have talked with medical staff at the border with north korea if they have seen hundreds of trucks every day and every night going into north korea. , did any of the trucks carry medical supplies into north korea . They had nots heard of medical supplies. Restrict travel and shut down your country and promote social distancing, you are in a better position. So china might have motivation to hide anything but they cannot hide a pandemic. Host lets go to june in sacramento. Thank you for taking my question. You indicated earlier in the that there needed to be an intermediary animal to transfer coronavirus from a bat to a human. Are you aware of any information or have an opinion about whether that intermediate species could be bypassed by biological engineering . Dr. Li i have not read anything about the intermarried very host but if wediary host , the virus passed snakes, nothrough directly from that. Ats. Rom back b people around the world say people in china eat bats but it is false information. By do not get the virus eating wildlife because they are cooked. Through cuts in your finger or hand. Host what are the lessons learned, when we get beyond this and look back at this in terms of where this originated and how to address this better in the future, what are those lessons . Dr. Li four china, the lesson wildlife wet market and wildlife trade must be shut down. To hough it is close even though it is a lot of money, it is a drop in the bucket. They successfully shut down thousands of polluting factories and moved millions of workers to different livelihoods. If china could do that, they can and the wildlife trade end the wildlife trade. The wildlife trade happened in many countries. Any country with a concentrated animal operation where you put a large amount close in artificial settings, it could lead to a pandemic like this. Li is from the university of houston and is joining us from texas. Winky for your time and expertise. Dr. Li thank you very much. Host the president has outlined a plan for states to reopen amid the pandemic. Joining us from cleveland is dr. Kristin england, an Infectious Disease physician from the Cleveland Clinic. Thank you for joining us. When we checked in with you a month ago, i put on the screen where we were with covid and compare it to where we are now. In march, 410,000 cases worldwide and more than 21,000 deaths. Approaching 100 43,000 deaths. What does that tell you about this illness, this disease, this virus . Beenngland the growth has clearly exponential. We are seeing so many more cases. I think they anticipated that it would grow this large, but now we are seeing it come to fruition. This is spreading very rapidly and we are going to see it continue to climb over the next number of weeks to months. Steve we heard from Governor Mike Dewine that he wants to begin to open parts of the economy as early as may 1. For i went to get there and other states to follow, from your standpoint, what has to happen . Dr. England what the president set for today is that there have to be a couple of points that are met, that the number of symptoms have to go down, the number of positive cases have to have a clear trend down over a two week time course, and we have to have our hospitals ready in case the surge does come. Any state has to meet those three points before we can consider expanding or moving into phase one, where we can start to loosen up some of the restrictions. Governor dewine has done an exceptional job of leading ohio of to this point in time. I dont think hes going to do anything too early. He certainly kept us from being on a very severe exponential trend and getting a lot more ohioans killed. So i dont think hes going to lighten up in our state to early. Steve what have you seen in northeastern ohio . Dr. England thankfully we are starting to see a bit of a plateau, so we are flattening the curve here in at least northeast ohio. The number of cases we are seeing admitted to the intensive care unit and being sent to the hospital staying roughly even, so that is certainly good news for all of us. Steve there has been talk of trying to resume some sort of normalcy, whatever that is, after all we have been going through. But theres the worry that there could be a second wave. If a second wave were to gone, when were to come, when could we expect that potentially . It depends on the social distancing and opening up a his nieces. It clearly does have to be done in phases, but that certainly doesnt mean that any of us can decrease all the things we have done that have gotten us to this good point so far. Cough etiquette, social distancing, making sure that those who are most at risk for getting ill or being taken care of and we are not risking their lives by introducing the virus into their lives. So i think its going to have to be done in a very prolonged, phased process, so that we make sure that if we start to see uptrends in the disease again, we can nip it in the bud and bring it back down to where we are currently. Steve let me put a couple of things on the table, baseball at progressive feel, family weddings, political conventions in august. Will we see this in the summer . Dr. Englund i dont think we will. We are certainly going to need to do these phases very slowly. Large, mass groups such as sporting events, large weddings, other events where youre bringing together 50 or more people, thats going to be in phase three, and i just think those will be pushed back probably until the fall and even into the wintertime. Steve what do you tell people who are planning weddings or graduation parties or other large family gatherings . Dr. Englund i think you need to make sure you are taking insurance out on all these plans you are making. That would be a smart thing to do, so that you dont lose all of your money. It is not anything that anybody can fully predict. Ive got plans with my family to take a trip in august, and the longer it goes, the more im realizing that may not happen. Your phones get to calls. Mike from massachusetts, good evening. Evening. Ood thank you for being on here. I just have a few points to make. As a pharmacological biochemist up here in boston, our research or ecology primarily, but pharmacology distrust is a lot of in scientific figures at a time like this, and i think we need to trust people like yourself and professionals on this issue as to how fast we open up. I have been listening the last half hour and i just want to mention to the callers who have been calling in and talking laboratory conspiracy,