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A fresh look at the possible origins of the Covid-19 pandemic points straight back to the Huanan seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, a scientist who has been studying the pandemic from the beginning asserted Thursday.
The researcher, Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona, has put together a painstaking timeline of all the known cases of SARS-Cov-2 before it was known a pandemic was starting.
He found many were in people who lived or worked near the market, the original suspected source of the pandemic, even if they didn't have direct links to the market.
But as Chinese government officials sought to deflect blame, and as the Trump administration and, later, intelligence officials in the Biden administration, pointed to the possibility of a virology research lab in Wuhan, the picture has become muddled.
Worobey, who specializes in tracing the genetic evolution of viruses, has found considerable evidence that the virus arose in an animal, and did not start circulating until the end of 2019. He has published multiple studies on the probable origins of the virus. But he said he wanted to check his own theories against the real-life evidence from what was known about actual people with documented infections.
So he dove into the known cases. He says what he found strengthens the theory that the virus originated in animals sold in the market much like the first SARS outbreak in 2002-2004 that infected 8,000 people before it was stopped.
The World Health Organization made its own investigation into the origins of the pandemic, and said animals were the most likely origin of the pandemic. But WHO also said its conclusions were not definite and asked the Chinese government to provide more information and access.
“This information might not ever come to light,”Worobey said. “The Chinese government cleared the Huanan market of all animals and disinfected it when it became clear it was associated with an outbreak of infectious disease in January of 2020, removing the risk of more spread, but also destroying crucial evidence.”
Source: CNN