COVID-19 reflects SARS origin from 17 years ago, study claims virus came from animals

With the ongoing research of the coronavirus, initial cases trace back to open animal markets in Wuhan, China. Scientists have concluded in a paper that an animal contagion is the most likely explanation for the pandemic’s genesis and that the Covid-19 virus mirrors the initial spread of SARS seventeen years earlier. 

The epidemiological history of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is comparable to previous animal market-associated outbreaks and offers a simple route for human exposure, Edward Holmes, Andrew Rambaut and 19 other researchers said in a review of the scientific evidence pertaining to the pandemic’s origins.

A detailed version of the research explains SARS-CoV-2’s early genetic signatures, early epidemiology and research undertaken at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The paper, which is yet to be reviewed was released on Wednesday and is set to be submitted to a journal for publication.

"There is currently no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 has a laboratory origin. There is no evidence that any early cases had any connection to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in contrast to the clear epidemiological links to animal markets in Wuhan, nor evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology possessed or worked on a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 prior to the pandemic," the authors of the research said.

Wuhan is the largest city in central China with multiple animal markets and is a major hub for travel and commerce. Based on epidemiological data, the Huanan wholesale seafood and produce market in Wuhan was an early epicentre of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Although no bat reservoir nor intermediate animal host for SARS-CoV-2 has been found so far, the virus’s transmission from one animal species to another is likely to go undetected, the authors said. Initial SARS-CoV-2 cases aren’t likely to have spread the virus to other people, and only a small subset of spillover events from animals to humans results in major outbreaks.

The research, released July 1 on a preprint server, found it would be difficult to duplicate SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture under laboratory conditions.

Almost a year since the outbreak began, COVID-19 has claimed more than four million lives, and the Wuhan wet market where it was initially detected stands empty even as the city around it has come back to life.

It’s become a symbol of the fierce political and scientific battle raging around the origin of the virus with Beijing continuing to spar with the United States and other countries, accusing them of bias.

Experts say the wet market still plays a role in the investigation and is therefore unlikely to be demolished, though much of that research will rely on samples taken immediately after the outbreak began.