The origin of the virus that causes COVID-19 remains a mystery and a major source of tension between China and the United States. From China, the lab leak theory has been consistently denied, calling it a conspiracy and stating instead that cases of viral fever had been diagnosed in other countries before Wuhan.
A joint study by China and the World Health Organization this year dismissed the theory that COVID-19 originated in a laboratory, saying the most likely hypothesis was that it infected humans naturally, likely through trade. . Now, a fresh look at what we know about early COVID-19 cases shows that the first known case was in a person working in the Huanan market in Wuhan, who was suspected as the source since the start of the pandemic.
The scientist who signed the study published in the journal Science , Michael Worobey , a leading expert in tracking the evolution of viruses at the University of Arizona (USA), found discrepancies in the timeline when reviewing what had already been released in medical journals, as well as video interviews in a Chinese media outlet with people, believed to feature the first two documented infections.
Worobey argues that the supplier’s ties to the Huanan seafood wholesale market, as well as a new analysis of the connections of the first hospitalized patients to the market, strongly suggest that the pandemic began there.
“The onset of his symptoms occurred after multiple cases in workers from the Huanan market (in Wuhan), which makes a seafood vendor from that place the earliest known case , with the onset of the disease on the 11th. December 2019 “, clarifies the expert.
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