Coronavirus ‘did NOT come from animals in Wuhan market’ and was ‘taken in by someone already carrying the killer bug’
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CORONAVIRUS may not have come from a wild animal market in Wuhan, according to the results of a landmark scientific study.As the search for the origin of Covid-19 continues, biologists have now found evidence suggesting the virus was “pre-adapted to human transmission”, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Biologists Yujia Alina Chan and Benjamin Deverman from the Broad Institute carried out the new research alongside Shing Hei Zhan from the University of British Columbia.
For their study, they compared the genetic samples from Covid-19 patients with those from the coronavirus of the 2002-04 SARS epidemic – which was also transmitted from bats to humans.
They wrote that they were surprised to find that the new coronavirus “resembles SARSCoV in the late phase of the 2003 epidemic”.
But this similarity raised their suspicions, as while SARS-CoV had evolved as it spread across the world, the new coronavirus arrived in a “highly infectious” form that seemed “pre-adapted to human transmission”.
Covid-19 appeared “without peer in late 2019”, they write, “suggesting there was a single introduction of the human-adapted form of the virus into the human population.”
This led the scientists to conclude that “the publicly available genetic data does not point to cross-species transmission of the virus at the market.”
“The possibility that a non-genetically engineered precursor could have adapted to humans while being studied in a laboratory should be considered”, they added.
‘IMPORTED’
The scientists also genetically examined four samples containing the virus from the animal market to those taken from a patient in Wuhan in December.
In doing so, they found the two were “99.9 per cent identical”, and stated this pointed towards the theory that “Sars-CoV-2 had been imported into the market by humans”.
But the suggestion that the coronavirus may have originated in a lab has also been challenged before by scientists, with the WHO calling the theory “speculative“.
The publicly available genetic data does not point to cross-species transmission of the virus at the market
Biologists From The Broad Institute, Examining The Origins Of Coronavirus
And Dr Anthony Fauci, the top medic leading the US coronavirus response, has also said he is “very, very strongly leaning toward the idea” that “this [virus] could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.”
But nonetheless, countries across the world have provoked the anger of Beijing by calling for an independent enquiry into the origins of the virus.
The Chinese government came under fire for closing the wet market just a day after the WHO were notified, obstructing efforts to gather vital samples to share with the international medical community.
BLAME GAME
The search for the source of the virus has become more complex since US-China relations have soured following President Trump’s claim that the virus originated in a lab.
But China has responded to these allegations with its own conspiracy theory asserting that American soldiers may have been responsible for the outbreak.
Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted on March 12 that it “might be the US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan“, prompting a diplomatic stand off with Washington that has lasted for months.
The Chinese government has also denied any association between the virus and any of its labs, claiming: “The virus was successfully isolated from positive environmental specimens, suggesting that the virus originated from wild animals sold in the South China Seafood Market.”
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It comes as the coronavirus has now killed over 312,000 people worldwide.
4.7 million people have been infected with the disease across six continents after it emerged in Wuhan, China at the end of last year.
But earlier this week, China claimed it was not aware of how infectious the virus was until Jan 19, Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the National Health Commission, said on Friday.
