WASHINGTON: An animal market within China’s Wuhan really was the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a pair of brand new studies in the diary Science published Wednesday (Jul 26) that claimed to have likely the balance in the discussion about the virus’ roots.
Responding to the question of if the disease spilled over naturally from pets to humans, or even was the result of the lab accident, is viewed as vital to preventing the next pandemic plus saving millions of life.
The first paper analysed the geographic pattern of COVID-19 cases in the outbreak’s first month, Dec 2019, showing the very first cases were tightly clustered around Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Low cost Market.
The second examined genomic information from the earliest instances to study the virus’ early evolution, concluding it was unlikely the particular coronavirus circulated broadly in humans just before November 2019.
Both were previously posted as “preprints” but have now been vetted by medical peer review and appear in a prestigious record.
Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona, who co-authored both papers, experienced previously called around the scientific community in the letter to be more open to the idea that herpes was the result of the lab leak.
But the findings moved him “to the stage where now I also think it’s just not credible that this virus was introduced any other method than through the animals trade at the Wuhan market”, he informed reporters on a contact.
Though prior investigation had centered on the live pet market, researchers wanted more evidence to find out it was really the progenitor of the outbreak, as opposed to an amplifier.
This required neighborhood-level study within Wuhan to be more certain the virus was “zoonotic” – that it leaped from animals to the people.