Covid origin studies say evidence points to Wuhan market

Scientists say there is “compelling evidence” that Wuhan’s Huanan seafood and wildlife market was at the centre of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Two peer-reviewed studies published on Tuesday re-examine information from the initial outbreak in the Chinese city. One of the studies shows that the earliest known cases were clustered around that market. The other uses genetic information to track the timing of the outbreak. It suggests there were two variants introduced into humans in November or early December 2019.

Together, the researchers say this evidence paints a picture that Sars-Cov-2 was present in live mammals that were sold at Huanan market in late 2019. They say it was transmitted into people who were working or shopping there in two separate “spillover events”, where a human contracted the virus from an animal.

Two years of scientific effort to understand the virus that causes Covid-19 have provided these researchers with a more informed perspective. This has enabled them to address a key conundrum in the earliest patient data: That out of hundreds of people who were hospitalised with Covid-19 in Wuhan, only about 50 had a direct, traceable link to the market.

“That was really puzzling that most cases could not be linked to the market,” said Prof Robertson. “But knowing what we know about the virus now, it’s exactly what we would expect - because many people only get very mildly ill, so they would be out in the community transmitting the virus to others and the severe cases would be hard to link to each other.”

This Covid-19 case-mapping research found that a large percentage of early patients - with no known connection to the market, meaning they neither worked nor shopped there - did turn out to live near it.

The lab leak theory

Over the last two years, the search for the origin of the deadly pandemic turned from a scientific investigation into a toxic political row.

One of the subjects of a fierce international blame game - primarily between politicians in the US and China - was a theory that the virus could have been leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But that hypothesis, said Prof Stuart Neil from Kings College, “can’t explain the data”.

Crowded, live animal markets, many scientists agree, provide an ideal transmission hotspot for new diseases to “spill over” from animals. And in the 18 months up to the beginning of the pandemic, a separate study showed that nearly 50,000 animals - of 38 different species - were sold at markets in Wuhan.

Prof Neil said the pandemic was very likely to have been a consequence of an “unhealthy, cruel and unhygienic practice that Chinese authorities had been warned about”.

The major risk of being distracted by looking for someone in a laboratory to blame for all this, he added, “is that we run the risk of letting this happen again because we’ve focused on the wrong problem.”

Of course, there will be naysayers and conspiracy theorists who will refuse to accept what, IMO, is the plausible explanation for the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

I don;t see anyone from the politburo in Bejing putting up their hands to the rest of the world and apologies for their disgusting habits of eating exotic animals?? and so causing covid

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If this is the case why is the market still running , why isn’t it shut down , my son visited it and it made him feel ill , the treatment of animals and the stench of blood and filth …so why don’t world health org shut it ?

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I wouldn’t want to visit china because of cruelty to animals.
Also previously the dying rooms for baby girls.

I read a lot of reports that suggested a virus that attacks bats could not attack humans & they gave names of scientists who may have been involved in experimenting to see if they could change the virus so it could attack humans.
I think that most people believe that Covid started in Wuhan, but nobody can prove whether it stemmed from the Market or was released ( accidentally or deliberately) from a science laboratory!

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Because its their culture and way of life, I suppose. And not all wet markets sell wildlife, many are just ordinary markets with fruit, veggies etc. I do think that massive changes to how they are operated should happen though.

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I have never believed in the “lab theory” - I always believed that SARS-Cov-2 had evolved and adapted naturally to spill over into infecting other animal species and eventually into humans, in the way that constantly mutating viruses have the capacity to do.
The animal market in Wuhan provided the kind of conditions where it could easily be passed back and forth from one animal species to another.

Is that meant to make anybody look a fool who challenges the report Omah?
Just a coincidence then that there is a world renowned virus lab in Wuhan?

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Precisely, Susan. I feel exactly the same as you.

With the continuing filth there, what’s to stop it happening again?
In fact, maybe it might even be something to do with so many variants keep continuing for all we know, if they are still allowed to carry on as if nothing has happened.

How come this is allowed? Somebody is not doing their job, that’s for sure.

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Did you miss the ‘NOT’ word out, Ripple, or did you mean it as it reads?

That is probably true, Bruce. There are plenty of zoonotic diseases, so why not this one.
We are just another species, after all - no matter how superior some humans think they are.

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They’ve been operating the market for years Mups and nothing like this has happened before. The link between a virus in bats or whatever has clearly been tampered with to allow it to be passed to humans. Bit of a coincidence that the lab is in the same location? This whole thing smells worse than the market…

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I thought the wet markets had stopped selling wild animals?
What happened to the ban on the wild animal trade for consumption which China introduced in 2020?

Have they changed the law again since then?

I’ll assume that you’re a “naysayer”, then … :heavy_check_mark:

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Ooops another fine mess !
‘nt yes

None of us can prove what happened but the reports I read were before the world pandemic & they even posted pictures of the scientist involved… who has since disappeared.
It was a USA reporter that did the investigation and he mentioned that it could be dangerous for much of the world as such a virus could cause economic problems for many countries, apart from possible deaths.
I am no admirer of the USA but they dont have a good relationship with China and if I had to believe one I don’t think China would be my choice. This is a report from 2021

Where is the US-China relationship headed in 2022?
**The US and China are increasingly locked in a serious economic and geopolitical competition, and the rivalry looks set to escalate next year.


The CCP are already trying to increase their power and appear to be discreetly on Putin’s side over Ukraine . Both leader’s would love the world to become communist & what better way than harming the economy of many non communist countries?.

The reports I read and the research I did before forming my opinion were about the biological aspects and knowledge of the way viruses can adapt as they move back and forth within reservoirs of different animal species.

I think the political arguments clouded a discussion that should have been based purely on science.

nevertheless I do believe that science and politics can make good bed fellas at times! I always remember that one of the lab scientists who tried to warn at least some “caught a disease” and died strangely??

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china and russia have a love hate relationship with the west and would quite happily love to bring it down imo - they are unscrupulous in their desires to rule the world - I wouldn’t trust them with one hair of my grannies head; and I have a casket full of them!!

the west needs to remain strong and resolute and stick together to withstand the various onslaughts of these nations imo

nb: there certainly seemed to be some nefarious activities occuring in the Wuhan laboratories which have never been fully explained. I believe there was a cover up action to avoid the rest of the world seeing too much

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Wasn’t there some American involvement in the labs?
You say that about China and Russia having a love hate relationship with the west Gummy, but, particularly in the UK, just about everything we use is made in China? We would be shafted without them.