It must be said that the debates have rebounded in recent weeks. The scientific world widely believes that the pandemic started because an animal transmitted the virus to humans, probably in the Chinese market of Huanan. However, researchers and American officials still defend the hypothesis of a laboratory leak, a priori the institute of Wuhan, the city of the market.
China strongly rejects this theory, but has also long denied that the Huanan market could have housed animals capable of transmitting the virus. However, new Chinese data relating to samples collected at the beginning of 2020 on the Huanan market, published at the end of January online before being withdrawn for an undetermined reason, made it possible to begin to lift the veil on what could have happened.
“These data show that there is molecular evidence proving that animals were sold in the market,” explained to journalists Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, who leads the fight against Covid at the WHO. “We suspected it, but we had no proof”, she indicated. “We also know that in the samples that tested positive for SARS-Cov-2, there was DNA from animals”, she added. All of these elements are “des indices” which can be used to better understand the origin of the virus, she pointed out, comparing the work of scientists to that of a “detective”.
