New Study Presents Evidence the COVID-19 Pandemic Originated in Wuhan Seafood Market

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – An international team of scientists has published a peer-reviewed study in which they present evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a seafood market in Wuhan, China, the Hill reports.

Titled “Genetic tracing of market wildlife and viruses at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the paper was published on September 19 in the Massachusetts, United States-based scientific journal, Cell.

While it does not rule out the possibility that the COVID-19 virus originated from human activity, the paper provides additional evidence that an infected animal transmitted the virus to humans at the Huanan seafood market in late 2019, the Hill notes.

“The introduction by an animal trader infected by animals upstream of the market is further challenged by the probability that transmission chains dependent upon a single human would likely go extinct,” the 23 study authors report. “A sustained interface between infected animals and humans in a market is more likely to result in the establishment of an epidemic.”

“We identify wildlife DNA in all SARS-CoV-2-positive samples from this stall, including species such as civets, bamboo rats, and raccoon dogs, previously identified as possible intermediate hosts,” the researchers write.

“The publicly available genomic and epidemiological data from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic remain incomplete, and future data from this time could shed further light on hypotheses regarding its emergence,” the paper reads.

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