The Covid-19 virus crossed from an unknown animal to an unidentified human being. If we had answers to those two questions, we should be able to trace the spread using gene sequencing technology. A majority of health officials believe the virus passed to humans at a now dismantled market where many of the first patients worked. Now scientists at Chinese Academy of Sciences are asking: was Wuhan Seafood Market really the wellspring of Covid-19?
Was the Virus Imported or Was Wuhan Seafood Market the Source?
Caixin global news channel in Beijing, China reported a fresh challenge to the seafood market theory on February 23, 2020. That’s because a paper posted on distribution platform ChinaXiv argues an unknown infected person brought the virus to the market from elsewhere. However, this breaking news has not been peer-reviewed yet.
The Chinese researchers used gene sequencing technology on 93 virus samples to analyze their haplotypes. These are groups of genes coming from a single parent organism they tagged H1. However, as their research continued, they discovered three more ancestral haplotypes H3, H13, and H38 in several samples without ties to Wuhan Seafood Market.
Some of These Had Ties with Shenzhen and the United States
This new information gives fresh impetus to the puzzle was Wuhan Seafood Market truly the source of the outbreak. The researchers concluded it was ‘relatively likely’ Covid-19 entered that market from another source. Moreover, they think it could probably have circulated widely among the Wuhan population from mid to late November, 2019.
This finding confirms a recent report the Lancet medical journal published earlier in January 2020. That paper analyzed 41 cases dating as far back a December, 2019. Those researchers concluded 13 of these had no links to the market. So was Wuhan Seafood Market where these troubles began? This seems somewhat unlikely now because of those reports.
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Preview Image: Small Food Stall in China
