Over the weekend (February 25–26), researchers released a trio of studies that add weight to the theory that a live food and animal market in Wuhan, China, is likely the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two of the studies analyzed viral genomes alongside geospatial maps of the stalls in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, finding that the SARS-CoV-2-positive swabs collected from stalls and food at the market were concentrated in a section of the market where live animals were sold. The third, an analysis of 800 early COVID-19 cases in Wuhan, suggests that the virus spilled over into people at the market on two separate occasions, sometime between November and December 2019.
Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and an author on two of the reports, tells Nature that the three studies together are “extremely strong evidence” that the market was the source ...
