What does the science say about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?
1 year, 10 months ago

What does the science say about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?

NPR  

What does the science say about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? Enlarge this image toggle caption Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images Since the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic began three years ago, its origin has been a topic of much scientific — and political — debate. Enlarge this image toggle caption Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images But at the end of the day, the origin of the pandemic is also a scientific question. In particular, scientists published two extensive, peer-reviewed papers in Science in July 2022, offering the strongest evidence to date that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in animals at a market in Wuhan, China. Enlarge this image toggle caption Edward Holmes Edward Holmes Earliest known cases of COVID-19, even those not directly related to individuals who had been in the market, radiate out from the market With a virus, such as SARS-CoV-2, that causes no symptoms or mild symptoms in most people, you don't have any chance of linking all the early cases to the site where the outbreak started.

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History of this topic

5 things we know and still don’t know about COVID, 5 years after it appeared
1 week, 1 day ago

5 things we know and still don’t know about COVID, 5 years after it appeared

Associated Press  

Five years ago, a cluster of people in Wuhan, China, fell sick with a virus never before seen in the world. Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print We don’t know. Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Scientists and vaccine-makers broke speed records developing COVID-19 vaccines that …

Wuhan Market: More Likely Origin of COVID-19 Virus Than Previously Thought
2 months, 1 week ago

Wuhan Market: More Likely Origin of COVID-19 Virus Than Previously Thought

The Hindu  

A new study suggests that the Wuhan market in China was the origin of the COVID-19 virus. The data, which was shared publicly by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, included genetic material from more than 800 samples collected at the Huanan market shortly after its closure in early 2020. The researchers found that the virus and the …

‘Beyond reasonable doubt’ Covid pandemic originated at Wuhan market stall
3 months, 3 weeks ago

‘Beyond reasonable doubt’ Covid pandemic originated at Wuhan market stall

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy It is beyond “reasonable doubt” that the Covid-19 pandemic originated in …

Column: The COVID lab leak claim isn’t just an attack on science, but a threat to public health
4 months, 3 weeks ago

Column: The COVID lab leak claim isn’t just an attack on science, but a threat to public health

LA Times  

Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, responds to unfounded attacks on his integrity at a Senate hearing during the pandemic. — 41 scientists warn of the rise in anti-science disinformation “The lab leak narrative fuels mistrust in science and public health infrastructures,” the authors observe. Yet, scientists and public health professionals have been …

COVID-19: Why we're looking for the pandemic's origin
9 months, 3 weeks ago

COVID-19: Why we're looking for the pandemic's origin

Hindustan Times  

Discovering COVID's origin will shape the next pandemic. Some experts say it's possible that the Wuhan lab had progenitor strains — ancestors — of SARS-CoV-2, but China's alleged withholding information on the origin of COVID makes this impossible to prove or disprove. "Every form of the lab leak theory involves some sort of cover up, which to me means that …

Revealed: US and China sought to create virus in 2018 similar to Covid
11 months, 3 weeks ago

Revealed: US and China sought to create virus in 2018 similar to Covid

Daily Mail  

Bombshell new documents shed light on a shady 2018 project between US and Chinese scientists to create a novel virus with the same rare features seen in Covid. In initial proposals for DEFUSE, the lab work was to be done in a biosafety-level 2 lab, which researchers said would appeal to federal grant-makers as 'highly cost effective' despite the fewer …

Is THIS how the Covid pandemic began after all? Study finds strain of virus in PANGOLINS was nearly identical to the strain in humans
1 year, 3 months ago

Is THIS how the Covid pandemic began after all? Study finds strain of virus in PANGOLINS was nearly identical to the strain in humans

Daily Mail  

As infectious disease experts continue to probe the true origin of the Covid pandemic, new research is making a case for pangolins as the middlemen between the original animal host and humans. The research team found the strain of coronavirus harbored in the rare animal was nearly identical to the one that has pummeled humans, leading them to theorize that …

COVID-19 origins remain a mystery, declassified report shows
1 year, 6 months ago

COVID-19 origins remain a mystery, declassified report shows

LA Times  

Security personnel gather near the entrance of the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a visit by a team from the World Health Organization in 2021. U.S. intelligence agencies weren’t able to determine whether researchers at laboratory in Wuhan, China, who fell sick in the fall of 2019 were infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the disease that soon spread …

Explained | A boost to the zoonoses theory regarding the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus
1 year, 9 months ago

Explained | A boost to the zoonoses theory regarding the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus

The Hindu  

The story so far: In the never-ending debate about the origin of the virus that set off the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now fresh grist for the mill for those who have held out for the zoonotic angle — that the infection skipped from animals to humans. Undisclosed genetic data from a food market in Wuhan has been unearthed and …

No definitive conclusion on COVID-19 origin theory: White House
1 year, 10 months ago

No definitive conclusion on COVID-19 origin theory: White House

The Hindu  

There is no definitive conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a lab in China, the White House has said. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby’s remarks came following a report that the U.S. Energy Department has concluded the virus most likely leaked from a lab in China. The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 26, citing a …

The latest in the COVID 'lab leak' theory: What we know and don't know about the origins of the pandemic
1 year, 10 months ago

The latest in the COVID 'lab leak' theory: What we know and don't know about the origins of the pandemic

Firstpost  

Washington: The US Energy Department’s conclusion, with “low confidence,” that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic has renewed questions about what sparked the worst public health crisis in a century — and whether the virus at the heart of it was somehow connected to scientific research. Scientists who have studied the genetics of the …

Covid-19 variants still transmissible between species, finds new study
2 years, 1 month ago

Covid-19 variants still transmissible between species, finds new study

Hindustan Times  

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is still highly transmissible between mammals, according to a study based on computer simulations. The findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, show how the viral spike proteins in several SARS-CoV-2 variants interact with the host cell receptors known as ACE2 in both humans and various bats of genus Rhinolophus. "We were hoping to see …

COVID-19 origin theories: Was there a lab leak in Wuhan or the US?
2 years, 2 months ago

COVID-19 origin theories: Was there a lab leak in Wuhan or the US?

Firstpost  

While the Wuhan lab leak theory is in vogue in some quarters, others are pointing the finger at the US. Let’s take a look at the different theories about the origins of COVID-19 Wuhan lab leak hypotheses This, of course, is the origin theory in vogue in some quarters. “The available evidence appears to be inconsistent with both historic precedent …

Report authored by disgraced Peter Daszak says animal to human transmission was most likely scenario
2 years, 3 months ago

Report authored by disgraced Peter Daszak says animal to human transmission was most likely scenario

Daily Mail  

A report co-authored by disgraced scientist Dr Peter Daszak has claimed there is ‘no evidence’ Covid was created in a laboratory. A leaked email from 2020 showed Dr Daszak seeming to express gratitude to Dr Fauci for downplaying the theory that the Covid-19 was created in a lab in Wuhan, China Dr Daszak is considered a potential orchestrator of the …

New studies bolster theory coronavirus emerged from the wild
2 years, 5 months ago

New studies bolster theory coronavirus emerged from the wild

Associated Press  

Two new studies provide more evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a Wuhan, China market where live animals were sold – further bolstering the theory that the virus emerged in the wild rather than escaping from a Chinese lab. “I was quite convinced of the lab leak myself until we dove into this very carefully and looked at it …

New studies bolster theory coronavirus emerged from the wild
2 years, 5 months ago

New studies bolster theory coronavirus emerged from the wild

The Independent  

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Two new studies provide more …

COVID origin | WHO says it’s unclear but lab leak theory needs study
2 years, 7 months ago

COVID origin | WHO says it’s unclear but lab leak theory needs study

The Hindu  

Over two years after the coronavirus was first detected in China, and after at least 6.3 million deaths have been counted worldwide from the pandemic, the World Health Organisation is recommending in its strongest terms yet that a deeper probe is required into whether a lab accident may be to blame. Yet in a report released on Thursday, WHO's expert …

Pandemic’s origins obscured by lack of Chinese data: WHO panel
2 years, 7 months ago

Pandemic’s origins obscured by lack of Chinese data: WHO panel

Live Mint  

The World Health Organization said on Thursday its latest investigation into the origins of COVID-19 was inconclusive, largely because data from China is missing, another blow to its years-long effort to determine how the pandemic began. The report from the WHO expert panel said all available data showed the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 probably came from animals, likely bats, …

The virus before Covid-19 changed the world forever
2 years, 8 months ago

The virus before Covid-19 changed the world forever

Hindustan Times  

NEW DELHI: Imagine an outbreak of a coronavirus taking hold in parts of Asia. For a country with crowded cities and an overstretched health system like India, this virus is bad news: even a small proportion with fatal disease could become a huge number. Against the backdrop of the pandemic today, when a pathogen that fits the above description has …

The recombinant variants of SARS-CoV-2
2 years, 9 months ago

The recombinant variants of SARS-CoV-2

The Hindu  

The story so far: The World Health Organization has flagged the emergence of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus — the XE recombinant. While recombination events are not frequently observed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, multiple recombinant lineages have been designated during the pandemic. Three new recombinant lineages of SARS-CoV-2 have been recently designated by the PANGO network and are …

COVID-19: The endless search for the origins of the virus
2 years, 9 months ago

COVID-19: The endless search for the origins of the virus

Al Jazeera  

Two years after a pandemic was declared, scientists continue to debate how the coronavirus behind COVID-19 came to infect humans. “It isn’t fantastical to say there’s a cover-up.” For Chan and all those who argue that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could have originated from a lab, so long as an intermediary animal host that had passed the virus from bats to …

5 New Things We Learned About COVID In February 2022
2 years, 10 months ago

5 New Things We Learned About COVID In February 2022

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING What we know about COVID-19 seems to change by the minute. The Pfizer vaccine is less effective at preventing omicron infections in kids 5 to 11 In late February, we got new data about how well the Pfizer vaccine — the only COVID vaccine approved for children ages 5 to 11 — held up in that age …

Origins of virus responsible for Covid-19 traced to horseshoe bats
2 years, 11 months ago

Origins of virus responsible for Covid-19 traced to horseshoe bats

The Independent  

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It is clear that recombination is a defining feature of SARS-related coronaviruses and essential …

Pandemic mystery: Scientists focus on COVID’s animal origins
3 years, 1 month ago

Pandemic mystery: Scientists focus on COVID’s animal origins

Associated Press  

Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the origin of the virus tormenting the world remains shrouded in mystery. “The lab-leak scenario gets a lot of attention, you know, on places like Twitter,” but “there’s no evidence that this virus was in a lab,” said University of Utah scientist Stephen Goldstein, who with 20 others wrote an article in the …

Pandemic mystery: Scientists focus on covid’s animal origins
3 years, 1 month ago

Pandemic mystery: Scientists focus on covid’s animal origins

Live Mint  

Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the origin of the virus tormenting the world remains shrouded in mystery. “The lab-leak scenario gets a lot of attention, you know, on places like Twitter,” but “there’s no evidence that this virus was in a lab,” said University of Utah scientist Stephen Goldstein, who with 20 others wrote an article in the …

Column: A new research paper adds to the evidence that COVID-19 came from animals, not a Chinese lab
3 years, 1 month ago

Column: A new research paper adds to the evidence that COVID-19 came from animals, not a Chinese lab

LA Times  

Medical staff help a patient walk into the hospital in Wuhan, China, in January 2020 as the pandemic was beginning. A new peer-reviewed research paper points to the likelihood that the COVID-19 pandemic originated at a seafood and wildlife market in Wuhan, China, rather than from a Chinese laboratory studying bat viruses. Worobey’s finding that the earliest identified COVID-19 cases …

Scientists find 18 more viruses from China's wet markets
3 years, 1 month ago

Scientists find 18 more viruses from China's wet markets

India TV News  

Highlights The origins of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been linked with a seafood market in Wuhan The first cases of SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from animal to human transmission at Wuhan's wet market An international team of scientists has identified 18 mammalian viruses, which pose high risk to humans and domestic animals, from China's infamous wet markets. China has maintained …

The Race Is On to Develop a Vaccine Against Every Coronavirus
3 years, 2 months ago

The Race Is On to Develop a Vaccine Against Every Coronavirus

Wired  

On October 21, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave most of the US population permission to get a Covid vaccine booster—a shot in such high demand that 10 million people somehow obtained it in advance of that approval in an effort to feel a little safer. In a fistful of papers and preprints published in the past six …

A reminder from SARS-CoV-2
3 years, 2 months ago

A reminder from SARS-CoV-2

The Hindu  

Viruses are one of the most persistent and potent forces of evolution, writes Pranay Lal in his new book, Invisible Empire: The Natural History of Viruses. Genetic monsters Viruses together with other microbes speed up the gene exchange between similar and often unrelated life forms. When virologists teased open the RNA of SARS-CoV-2, they found that it carried genes that …

Origins of Covid-19 may never be known, says US intelligence agencies
3 years, 2 months ago

Origins of Covid-19 may never be known, says US intelligence agencies

India Today  

US intelligence agencies said on Friday they may never be able to identify the origins of COVID-19, as they released a new, more detailed version of their review of whether the coronavirus came from animal-to-human transmission or leaked from a lab. Former Republican President Donald Trump - who lost his bid for re-election as the deadly pandemic ravaged the U.S. …

Column: New evidence undermines the COVID lab-leak theory — but the press keeps pushing it
3 years, 3 months ago

Column: New evidence undermines the COVID lab-leak theory — but the press keeps pushing it

LA Times  

Workers tend to the body of a person suspected to have died of COVID-19 during the outbreak in Wuhan, China, where the pandemic is thought to have originated, in early 2020. The review concludes, “There is currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has a laboratory origin.” Now let’s look at the recent reporting in support of the lab-leak theory. On Sept. …

New discoveries deepen understanding of COVID-19 natural origins theory -- media
3 years, 3 months ago

New discoveries deepen understanding of COVID-19 natural origins theory -- media

China Daily  

BEIJING -- New discoveries about COVID-19 have deepened understanding of the natural origins theory, according to an article recently published by the World Socialist Web Site. "New revelations and discoveries are constantly emerging, but they only deepen humanity's understanding of the natural origins of COVID-19 and the dangers posed by other animal-borne diseases to modern society," the article read. In …

Scientists find bats with Covid-like viruses in Laos caves
3 years, 3 months ago

Scientists find bats with Covid-like viruses in Laos caves

India Today  

Scientists have discovered another clue to the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19, with bats living in caves in Laos found to be carrying a similar pathogen that experts suggest could potentially infect humans directly. Researchers from France's Pasteur Institute and the National University of Laos said their findings showed that viruses genetically close to the SARS-CoV-2 virus "exist …

Is Coronavirus a biological weapon? Here's what the US intelligence community has to say
3 years, 4 months ago

Is Coronavirus a biological weapon? Here's what the US intelligence community has to say

India TV News  

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was "not developed" as a biological weapon, the US intelligence community has concluded in a report, with President Joe Biden reiterating the allegation that China continues to reject calls for transparency and withhold information about the origins of the virus. The Director of National Intelligence in a report, prepared at the direction of the …

WHO seeks experts for new advisory group on the origins of novel pathogens
3 years, 4 months ago

WHO seeks experts for new advisory group on the origins of novel pathogens

Live Mint  

New Delhi: The World Health Organization has issued an open call for experts to serve as members of the new WHO scientific advisory group for the origins of novel pathogens. The SAGO will advise WHO on technical and scientific considerations regarding the origins of emerging and re-emerging pathogens of epidemic and pandemic potential, and will be composed of a wide …

Fauci: ‘There’s no way’ the coronavirus was made with U.S. research funds. Here’s why
3 years, 5 months ago

Fauci: ‘There’s no way’ the coronavirus was made with U.S. research funds. Here’s why

LA Times  

Dr. Anthony Fauci responds to accusations by Sen. Rand Paul as he testifies before a Senate committee about the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on Tuesday. That specifically barred “research projects that may be reasonably anticipated” to make influenza and SARS viruses more transmissible and/or more virulent in mammals “via the respiratory route.” WIV’s adherence to that prohibition was monitored, …

Evidence points to natural origin of Covid, not lab-leak: Scientists
3 years, 6 months ago

Evidence points to natural origin of Covid, not lab-leak: Scientists

India TV News  

An international team of scientists in a new study has claimed that evidence points to the natural origin of Covid, debunking the theory that Covid-19 leaked out of a Chinese laboratory. "Aside from the 1977 A/H1N1 influenza pandemic that likely originated from a large-scale vaccine challenge trial, there are no documented examples of human epidemics or pandemics resulting from research …

New Evidence Shows Covid-19 Evolved Naturally, Scientists Write in Lancet
3 years, 6 months ago

New Evidence Shows Covid-19 Evolved Naturally, Scientists Write in Lancet

News 18  

There is no scientifically validated evidence to support the theory that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory in China, and more recent, peer-reviewed studies strongly suggest that the virus evolved in nature, a group of scientists wrote in The Lancet journal. “We believe the strongest clue from new, credible, and peer-reviewed evidence in the scientific literature is that the virus …

The controversy being created about the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19
3 years, 6 months ago

The controversy being created about the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19

The Hindu  

The famous question about whetherthe world as we know it arose from evolution or creation was settled long ago in favour of evolution and against religious bigotry. Jemma Geoghegan, the well-known virologist from New Zealand who was prominent in her country’s prompt COVID-19 response, said: “SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the COVID-19, is closely related to other viruses that exist …

Peter Daszak was studying Coronavirus in China a year before Covid-19
3 years, 6 months ago

Peter Daszak was studying Coronavirus in China a year before Covid-19

Op India  

On June 14, it was reported that a video had emerged showing live bats in Wuhan Institute of Virology, adding to the theory that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may have leaked from the institute, accidentally or otherwise. These viruses include those able to bind to ACE2, the human cell-surface receptor for SARS-CoV, and able to infect and cause illness in the …

Origin unclear: The Hindu Editorial on the source of the coronavirus
3 years, 6 months ago

Origin unclear: The Hindu Editorial on the source of the coronavirus

The Hindu  

Over 17 months after WHO first reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China, scientists are yet to determine with certainty how the SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged. While the civet cat and dromedary camel were quickly identified to be the intermediate hosts of SARS and MERS, respectively, it took years to identify the horseshoe bat that …

EXPLAINER: The US investigation into COVID-19 origins
3 years, 7 months ago

EXPLAINER: The US investigation into COVID-19 origins

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Once dismissed by most public health experts and government officials, the hypothesis that COVID-19 leaked accidentally from a Chinese lab is now receiving scrutiny under a new U.S. investigation. Former State Department officials under President Donald Trump have publicly pushed for further investigation into virus origins, as have scientists and the World Health Organization. Biden ordered a review …

B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV-2 drove surge in the COVID-19 cases in last 2 months
3 years, 7 months ago

B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV-2 drove surge in the COVID-19 cases in last 2 months

The Hindu  

The surge of COVID-19 cases in the country in the last two months shows a correlation with the rise in B.1.617 variant of the SARS-CoV-2, according to INSACOG, a grouping of 10 national laboratories. “The current surge in cases seen over the last two months in some states shows a correlation with the rise in the B.1.617 lineage of SARS …

COVID-19 origin: Why the lab leak theory must be formally investigated
3 years, 7 months ago

COVID-19 origin: Why the lab leak theory must be formally investigated

Firstpost  

There are still many unanswered questions: we don’t know how the virus arrived in Wuhan, how its sequence evolved to allow human infection, and under what conditions it infected the first people who crossed its path A year and a half into the pandemic, we still do not know exactly where the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, came from. But …

Explained | Why has Joe Biden ordered an investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2?
3 years, 7 months ago

Explained | Why has Joe Biden ordered an investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2?

The Hindu  

The story so far: On May 14, a group of 18 scientists, most of them from the U.S., led by David A. Relman, published a letter in the journal Science, calling for further investigation to determine the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since there was no conclusive evidence for either hypothesis — natural spillover or lab leak — there were …

US, Britain seek new WHO look into COVID origins in China
3 years, 7 months ago

US, Britain seek new WHO look into COVID origins in China

Associated Press  

GENEVA — The United States and Britain are stepping up calls for the World Health Organization to take a deeper look into the possible origins of COVID-19, including a new visit to China where the first human infections were detected. The joint team said the most likely scenario was that the coronavirus jumped into people from bats via an intermediary …

Justice for Covid-19 victims: Why we must know where SARS-CoV-2 came from
3 years, 7 months ago

Justice for Covid-19 victims: Why we must know where SARS-CoV-2 came from

India Today  

More than 16.25 crore people have contracted SARS-CoV-2 infection since Covid-19 broke out in China towards the end of 2019. The natural origin theory became a scientific belief after an article was published by The Lancet in February 2020, within two months of China notifying the WHO about the Covid-19 outbreak. This makes SARS-CoV-2 unique and if evidence to the …

Documents Reveal Chinese Scientists Discussed Weaponising Coronavirus 5 Years Before Pandemic
3 years, 8 months ago

Documents Reveal Chinese Scientists Discussed Weaponising Coronavirus 5 Years Before Pandemic

News 18  

A document has reportedly been found wherein Chinese scientists and health officials are found discussing a “new era of genetic weapons” that could be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed. Titled ‘The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons’, the paper is said to have suggested that the …

Trinity College research finds why COVID 19 is to hard to treat
3 years, 8 months ago

Trinity College research finds why COVID 19 is to hard to treat

India TV News  

Researchers at the Trinity College Dublin showed that a comprehensive review into what we know about Covid 19 and the way it functions suggests that the virus has a unique infectious profile, which explains why it can be so hard to treat and why some people experience a long struggle with the virus, and even after the virus is technically …

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