Covid-19: two studies conclude that the pandemic started in the Wuhan market

The Wuhan market, where the coronavirus epidemic would have started in December.

© Hector RETAMAL/AFP

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The Covid-19 pandemic would have started on the market in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. This is the conclusion of two studies, published in the prestigious journal

Science,

 which thus point to a very probable animal origin of the virus.

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The first study is a geographical analysis of the places of residence of the first 155 cases identified in December 2019. It clearly shows that they were concentrated around the Wuhan market, unlike the following months when it was the high-density areas of the city. who are the most affected, attesting to the spread of the virus. 

Another point, the analysis of the samples taken on the market in January 2020 on a cage or trolleys, for example, shows that the samples positive for Sars-Cov-2 were concentrated in its south-western part, precisely where animals alive were sold. 

Still no intermediate animal found

The second study, for its part, is based on the analysis of the genome of the virus that infected the very first cases.

According to its conclusions, it is very unlikely that the virus circulated widely among humans before November 2019. Almost three years after the start of the pandemic, gray areas remain.

The animal that served as an intermediary between bats carrying the Coronavirus and humans has not been identified, but science is advancing.

One of the authors of these studies, virologist Michael Worobey, caused a stir in 2021 by raising the hypothesis of a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan.

The data analyzed have made it evolve.

“

 It is not plausible that the virus was introduced in any way other than through the animal trade at the Wuhan market

 ,” he writes today.

Our preprints on the origin of SARS-CoV-2...https://t.co/ZWqqDnPqNr



have now been peer reviewed and published as a pair of Research Articles by @ScienceMagazine

— Michael Worobey (@MichaelWorobey) July 26, 2022

►Also read: Where does the Covid-19 come from?

In Wuhan, China, the question divides

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  • Coronavirus

  • China

  • Health and medicine