New studies making the rounds this week posit that a market in Wuhan, China is where the coronaviruspandemic originated before spreading to humans.
Per a report from the New York Times, the two studies—which haven’t yet been published in a scientific journal—saw scientists taking a look at data spanning from market stall maps to social media posts from early COVID-19 patients in the area.
Detailing the overarching determination of these two studies, Michael Worobey—a co-author on both—said an “extraordinarily clear picture” has emerged regarding the role of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
“When you look at all of the evidence together, it’s an extraordinarily clear picture that the pandemic started at the Huanan market,” Worobey, who’s also an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, told the Times.
While the report notes that other scientists have also expressed confidence in the findings of these two studies, there is some criticism, including on the basis that the “quality of the data” is insufficient, as well as the fact that neither recently reported study named a specific animal as being the one that spread the virus to humans at the market in late 2019.
One of the new studies states that “at least two” zoonotic events (i.e. transmission from animals to humans) likely caused the emergence of COVID-19, with researchers saying that the first such transmission (by way of one viral lineage) is estimated to have occurred in late November or early December of 2019. Within weeks of this event, the study says, the introduction of another viral lineage occurred.
Meanwhile, the other study—available here—focuses largely on the geographical clustering of the initial COVID-19 cases. This geography data, as well as the proximity to animal vendors, has been interpreted by involved scientists to suggest that the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market “was the site of origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Here in the States, the CDC this month rolled out its new COVID-19 Community Levels tool. The service is designed to assist in varying community decisions regarding prevention measures, with areas categorized on a scale from low to high.
