Covid origin studies say evidence points to market

Image source, Reuters

There is strong evidence that the Covid-19 outbreak was caused by the Huanan seafood and wildlife market.

The first outbreak in the Chinese city was re-examined by two peer-reviewed studies.

The earliest known cases were clustered around that market, according to one study.

Genetics are used to track the timing of an outbreak.

It suggests there were two different versions of humans.

The evidence shows that live mammals were sold at the Huanan market in late 2019? They say it was transmitted into people who were working or shopping there in two separate incidents, where a human contracted the virus from an animal.

Prof David Robertson from the University of Glasgow hopes the studies will correct the false record that the virus came from a lab.

The two years of scientific effort to understand the virus that causes Covid-19 has given researchers a more informed perspective.

Out of hundreds of people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 in Wuhan, only about 50 had a direct connection to the market.

Most cases could not be linked to the market. "Because many people only get very mildly ill, so they would be out in the community transmitting the virus to others and the severe cases would be hard to link to each other, it's exactly what we would expect."

A large percentage of early patients with no known connection to the market, meaning they didn't work or shop there, turned out to live near it.

The idea that the market was the epicenter of the epidemic is supported by this evidence.

The area with the highest likelihood of containing the home of someone who had one of the earliest Covid-19 cases in the world was an area of a few city blocks.

The market itself was also studied. Scientists created a map of the samples that tested positive for the virus, from the drain and market stalls.

Prof Robertson said that most of the positives were clustered around the south-western side of the market. The location where we report species like raccoon dogs is there.

We have confirmation of animals that are susceptible to the virus that causes Covid-19.

The search for the origin of the deadly Pandemic turned into a political dispute over the last two years.

One of the subjects of a fierce international blame game, which was mostly between politicians in the US and China, was a theory that the virus could have been leaked from a lab.

Prof Stuart Neil said that the hypothesis couldn't explain the data.

Based on the evidence we have, we are certain that this was a spillover event in the market.

Crowded, live animal markets are ideal for new diseases to spread. In the 18 months leading up to the beginning of the Pandemic, a study showed that nearly 50,000 animals were sold at markets in the city.

Prof Neil said that the Chinese authorities had been warned about an "unhealthy, cruel and unsanitary practice" that is likely to have caused the outbreak.

We run the risk of letting this happen again because we've focused on the wrong problem, he said.