Scientists came to the conclusion that the first cases of infection in one way or another were among people who worked in the market, shopped there or lived nearby.
A seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan is likely to be the epicenter of the spread of the coronavirus. This is stated in two new studies by scientists published in the journal Science – one of the most respected scientific publications. The Washington Post and CNN wrote about it.
One of the authors of the first study, Christian Andersen, an immunologist at the Scripps Researc Research Institute (San Diego, California), believes that the origin of the virus from the market is due to a number of evidences, namely that is, the clustering. of the first cases of coronavirus around the market. Scientists believe that this evidence makes a market origin of the virus not only plausible, but also the only scenario that fits the available data.
The article claims that a disproportionate amount of virus traces were obtained in the part of the market where live animals are sold. While “the exact circumstances remain unclear,” the virus is likely among animals sold at the market in late 2019. The animals live in close proximity to each other and can easily exchange germs, but it is not known whether which animals exactly.
“The virus started spreading among the people working in the market, but then it started spreading in the environment when the sellers went to the stores and infected the people working there,” said Michael Sparrow, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Arizona .
Sparrow is one of 18 scientists who in May 2021 signed a letter published by the journal Science calling for an investigation into the origin of the virus, with the thesis that it was leaked from the laboratory. Shortly thereafter, US President Joe Biden instructed US intelligence to investigate all possible causes of the pandemic. The analysis concluded that the virus was not created as a bioweapon, but in the end it was not possible to come to a conclusion where it came from. Now Sparrow believes that the evidence obtained suggests that the outbreak is on the market, and alternative scenarios, including a laboratory, are not very credible.
Sparrow also noted that scientists mapped the first cases of infection among people who did not work in the market, but these people lived or went to work near him.
The second article uses a molecular approach and determines when coronavirus infections first jumped from animals to humans. Scientists believe that the virus entered the human population not once, but several times at the end of 2019. The genomic analysis of the first cases shows two different lineages. Both are found around the market. Scientists suggest that the first transmission of the virus to humans occurred on November 18, 2019 and came from the B line. This line was found only in people with a direct connection to the market. Line A was found among people who lived or visited near the market, but did not work there.
The authors of the publications acknowledge that there are still many unanswered questions that require further study, for example, in which animals the virus spreads.
It can be recalled that the coronavirus began to spread in the Chinese city of Wuhan (Hubei Province) at the end of 2019. Most scientists believe that COVID-19 is a zoonotic virus. It is thought that it can be passed to humans from bats. But since the evolutionary distance from this to SARS-CoV-2 is several decades, there must be an intermediate link.
Earlier it was reported that the incidence of the COVID-19 coronavirus began to grow in Kyiv.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.