Raccoon dog DNA has been found in genetic samples taken from a Chinese market close to the site of the first occurrences of COVID-19 in humans, adding support to the idea that the virus came from animals rather than a lab, according to international specialists.
Scientists from around the world said Thursday that they think the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, where the outbreak started, as first reported in The Atlantic.
COVID-19 Origins Debate
When the US Department of Energy investigation expressed “low confidence” that a lab leak was the cause of the epidemic, there is currently a heated dispute concerning its causes.
According to the report, scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention uploaded fresh information from swab samples taken in January 2020 at the market, including samples of the floors, walls, and cages housing animals.
The samples were then downloaded and examined by the multidisciplinary team, which comprised biologists and virologists.
“These data do not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is crucial to moving us closer to that answer,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.
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Wuhan Market Virus Leak
Like numerous other viruses before it, many scientists think it most likely spread from animals to humans at a wildlife market in Wuhan, China.
The new findings don’t answer the question, and neither have they been formally examined by other professionals nor published in a publication that is subject to peer review.
At a news conference, Tedros criticized China for holding back on disclosing the genetic data, saying that this data could have and should have been provided three years ago.
In Wuhan, where the first human cases of COVID-19 were found in late 2019, samples were collected in early 2020 from surfaces at the Huanan seafood market.
According to Tedros, scientists from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention have recently uploaded the genetic sequences to the world’s largest virus database.
These were later taken down, but not before a French biologist accidentally discovered the data and informed a team of researchers outside of China who are examining the coronavirus’s ancestry.
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