Explained | A boost to the zoonoses theory regarding the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus
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 is being used to support the zoonoses theory over the lab leak theory. On the contrary, the evidence in front of the WHO now is that “some coronavirus-positive samples collected contained DNA or RNA from raccoon dogs, civets, and other mammals now known to be highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2.” Michael Worobey, Head of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, who has been independently researching the twin theories, says the path of evidence leads up the zoonosis path, and not of the lab leak. But it hasn’t.” Worobey and team used cellphone mobility data to indicate that the Wuhan market was an unlikely location for the world’s first cluster of COVID cases, unless it was also from where the virus emerged. U.S.-based virologist Angella Rassmussen of the International Vaccine Centre who studies the struggle between host and pathogen, in an interview to NPR last week said: “I think we’re all open to the fact that evidence could emerge that shows that it didn’t come from the market — that it came from a lab.
CIA assesses lab leak most plausible source of Covid-19, though with low confidence
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