New research proves earlier assumptions
Scientists believe they have found the origin of the covid-19 pandemic three years after the first cases popped up in Wuhan, China.
People have long debated the origins of the pandemic, with some suggesting it was deliberately leaked from a laboratory and others believing it had something to do with contaminated meat. Of course, xenophobia played a massive part in many theories.
Now however, an international team of scientists believe they have found a root cause and have published in their peer-reviewed findings that the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan was ground zero.
Their findings, which were published in Science, confirm that the first cases appeared in late November, or early December 2019. They believe that live animals infected with the virus were then sold and caused the spread of covid to vendors, customers and then the wider public.
This information is not completely new, given that many pointed to Wuhan as the eye of the storm early on in the pandemic – but it does confirm what was long expected.
“From the clinical observations in Wuhan, around half of the earliest known Covid cases were people directly linked to the seafood market,” evolutionary biologist Michael Worobey told NPR. “And the other cases, which aren’t linked through epidemiological data, have an even closer geographical association to the market.”
He added: “That’s what we show in our paper. It’s absurd how strong the geographical association is.”
While confirming the likelihood of a major outbreak at the market without a source of the virus was very slim, Worobey also said that the odds of the virus not having an origin in the market are about “1 in 10,000.”
Related links:
- Drunk driver blames covid when caught on motorway with two missing tyres
- Brits might have to go back to wearing masks, health minister warns
- ‘New covid wave is now starting’ Sage scientist warns as infections spike for first time in two months
