gorodenkoff/iStock
A new one published by researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) sheds light on samples taken from the rainforest market in Wuhan, Chin, the presumed location of origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists around the world are divided over whether he is helping us identify the origins of the disease.
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan City was closed in January 2020 after several early cases of COVID-19 were connected to the location. Researchers believe the SARS-nCOV-2 virus likely spread from animals to humans here. the idea that the virus likely leaked from a virology studies lab in Wuhan and that the rainy market was a widespread event.
Genomic research of swabs taken from stalls, surfaces, cages and machines inside the market hoped to provide more data on the spread of the virus at the site and was recently published in the journal Nature.
According to the study, some of the samples taken from the site tested positive for the virus. The research also showed that animals, such as raccoon dogs, are vulnerable to the virus and were also provided at the facility. Since the sample collection was carried out after the disease began to spread, the clinical network is divided over how to interpret knowledge.
David Robertson, a virologist at the University of Glasgow, told the BBC that the study provided strong evidence of an animal-human overflow. Calling the study a vital dataset that others could address now, he added that it’s compelling proof that the animals were likely inflamed with the virus.
gorodenkoff/iStock
During the first weeks of the outbreak, there were two lines of the virus, A and B, in circulation, and only lineage B was discovered on the market. The CDC’s Chinese article also showed that lineage A was also discovered in the samples it analyzed, confirming that lineage A is not ancestral to B.
Others, however, worry about the effects and recommend that the effects are inconclusive that the spread of the virus has occurred in the market. They hypothesize that the virus was probably introduced to the market and not necessarily through an animal. In addition, the study also fails to identify an express animal host for the virus, which transmitted it to humans, fueling the theory of laboratory leakage.
Alice Hughes, a verbal exchange biologist at the University of Hong Kong, questioned the quality of the studies after the examination also uncovered DNA lines from pandas, mole-rats and chimpanzees in samples from the market. Since killing a panda is punishable by death in China, Hughes is convinced that there is no indication of a panda on the market, but it showed up in the analysis.
This may only be the result of contamination of the samples or handling of the data, either of which raises doubts about the trust that should be placed in the results.