FILE – Residents line up to be tested for COVID-19 in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province on Aug. 3, 2021. 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. The research was published online Tuesday, July 26, 2022, by the journal Science
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“All eight COVID-19 cases detected prior to 20 December were from the western side of the market, where mammal species were also sold. Unlike SARS-CoV-2 positive environmental samples, we found that COVID-19 cases were more diffuse throughout the building,” the study adds.
According to another study cited by news agency ANI, there were two variants introduced into humans in November or early December 2019. According to the research, the animal to human transmission started around November 18, 2019.
“These findings indicate that it is unlikely that SARS-CoV-2 circulated widely in humans prior to November 2019 and define the narrow window between when SARS-CoV-2 first jumped into humans and when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported. As with other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 emergence likely resulted from multiple zoonotic events,” the study said.
Both the studies, with evidence, claim that Sars-Cov-2 was present in live mammals that were sold at the Huanan market in late 2019. The animal-to-human transmission took place when people working or shopping in the market in two separate “spillover events”.World Health Organization (WHO) had recommended that the scientific community should continue to research all the possible origins of COVID-19 pandemic, including the much-politicized lab-leak theory.
