Contrary to what has been suggested for months, the coronavirus most likely did not originate in the infamous fish market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
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This is evident from Chinese research recently published in the authoritative scientific journal Nature.
Scientists still think that the coronavirus has passed from animals to humans. The first people infected with the coronavirus were visitors to a large food market in Wuhan city. There, bats, snakes, civets, other wildlife, fish and seafood were sold in large numbers and often under unsanitary conditions.
Super spreader
The poor hygiene on the market, combined with stories of infected visitors, reinforced the suspicion that the virus originated on the market. It now appears that this market acted “only” as “a super spreader”, with one visitor likely transmitting the virus to other visitors. “The market now appears to be one of the victims of the virus,” said Gao Fu, director of China’s Center for Disease Control.
Samples of animals put up for sale on the market tested negative for the coronavirus, the recent study found. “I haven’t seen anything that makes me feel as a researcher that this market is the source of the virus,” notes Colin Carlson, a biologist and infectious disease expert at Georgetown University in conversation with Live Science. “This is a virus of animal origin that has made the leap to humans. Maybe through bats. Maybe through another animal, or livestock. We do not yet have information on how and where. It takes time.” Carlson refers to the research on the origin of SARS, which was only published in 2017, about fifteen years after the virus’s outbreak.
A scientific study shows that a person who showed symptoms of the virus on December 1 was the first known infected patient. Unlike many other people who belonged to the first group of patients, he had not been on the infamous fish market. This, too, subsequently strengthens the idea that the virus originated elsewhere.
Trump’s criticism
The exclusion of the fish market as the original source means that the nearby laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, may be even more under a magnifying glass. The wildest stories about this institute have been circulating for a while, for example that a bat virus was investigated there and accidentally spread by an infected employee.
In the United States in particular, the Chinese story has been questioned for months. US President Donald Trump states that he has faced “compelling evidence” showing that the coronavirus originates from the laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Much to his chagrin in China, he continued to emphatically call the virus “China or Wuhan virus.”
WHO response
At least, according to the World Health Organization, all available evidence about the coronavirus points to animal origin. However, according to WHO, it remains impossible to determine the exact source of the virus. It was previously suggested that bats or pangolins were the source, but no concrete evidence has ever been found. Stephen Turner, a professor of microbiology at Monash University in Melbourne, says to The Guardian that the virus probably came from bats.
The U.S. intelligence community has determined that the virus is in any case not human-made or genetically modified. The intelligence services are further investigating the origin of the virus. This should show whether the outbreak was due to contact with infected animals or whether it was the result of an accident in the laboratory in Wuhan.
Finding out the origin and tracing patient zero is important because it can provide crucial information about the genetic makeup of the virus and possible mutations. That can lead to a vaccine.
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