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Market in China's Wuhan likely origin of COVID-19 outbreak -scientist

Published 11/18/2021, 11:49 PM
Updated 11/19/2021, 04:25 PM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People visit a street market almost a year after the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China December 7, 2020. Picture taken December 7, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People visit a street market almost a year after the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China December 7, 2020. Picture taken December 7, 2020. REUTERS/Aly Song

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The first known COVID-19 case was a market vendor in the Chinese city of Wuhan, not an accountant who appeared to have no link to the market but whose case contributed to speculation the virus could have leaked from a lab, a U.S. researcher wrote in a commentary piece published on Thursday.

The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 remains a mystery and a major source of tension between China and the United States. The new analysis by the researcher does not provide a definitive answer to that question.

A joint study by China and the World Health Organization (WHO) this year all but ruled out the theory that COVID-19 originated in a laboratory, saying that the most likely hypothesis was that it infected humans naturally, probably via the wildlife trade.

A WHO-led team of experts spent four weeks in and around the central city of Wuhan with Chinese scientists and said in a joint report in March that the SARS-CoV-2 virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal but that further research was needed.

The accountant who was widely thought to be the first person with COVID-19, when interviewed, said his first COVID-19 symptoms appeared on Dec. 16, several days later than initially reported, Michael Worobey, head of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, wrote in the commentary piece in the journal Science.

"His symptom onset came after multiple cases in workers at Huanan Market, making a female seafood vendor there the earliest known case, with illness onset 11 December," Worobey said in the article.

He said most early symptomatic cases were linked to the market, specifically to the western section where raccoon dogs were caged, providing strong evidence of a live-animal market origin of the pandemic.

Worobey was among the 18 scientists who had written to Science in May calling for an investigation into whether the source of the virus could have been a laboratory accident.

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, where the first cluster of cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged, in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, January 15, 2021. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

The WHO proposed last month a new expert panel to investigate the source of the coronavirus.

(This story has been corrected throughout to indicate the publication was a commentary piece, not a formal study. Adds background on researcher in paragraph 8)

Latest comments

early on, I read off an Australian website a research team proved with certainty the original covid virus showed many proofs of manipulation through lab culturing. they also concluded it shown no signs of genetic manipulation. perhaps bats were tinkering with the virus is little bat labs, like batman!
keep drinking that Chinese kool-aid
okay
BraahahahahHa..... 🥣 🦀....
BS
real news is found in The Epoch Times
Nobody holds the people of china… who are truly amazing… responsible for this… its the corrupt authoritarian over resching government officials ehonare reaponsible… not for the virus… but for covering it up… its like chernobyl all over again…
Chinese govt at 90M+ strong - larger than population of Germany, reflects all facets of society including 56 minority groups and has overwhelming support of Chinese people w/ >90% approval rating according multi-yr western polls.
from the lab
Please read Uncontrolled Spread by Scott Gottlie. With nothing else to do during lock down, I looked at all open sources of information on this topic. I believe Scott has it right, with very detailed step by step facts to prove this report wrong. I belive that though it may not have been intentional, the Lab in Wuhan is a major factor in Covid-19 release to humans. More importantly, Chinese officials must be accountable for hiding knowledge of a dangerous illness in the community so as to not embarrass themselves or higher officials during a major communist party event in Wuhan.
Rand Pauls current humiliation of Fauci proves this narrative absolutely false. Booooo Reuters Booooo
if you believe this "study", you've been lobotomized..
LMAO
Yet this ignores evidence of the virus found in sewage samples in Italy/Spain months before first case diagnosed in Wuhan, along w/posthumous cases in the US misdiagnosed flu as early as Sept 2019.
so the proofs that pompeo had was again fantasy to finger point an imaginary enemy
So Trump was right again calling this a China virus. There I fixed the headline
let's be honest nobody believes this ****
Jesus Christ Reuters, you still pumping this ******garbage??
Lies.
Well if China and the WHO said it, it must be true. Glad they solved that…
Only the most advanced country in the world could be capable to produce the virus in its lab.
Yep. The same country that recently tested highly advanced hypersonic missile.
Not true…
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