Chinese researchers publish Covid-origin data from Wuhan market

Three years after the pandemic began, a multitude of COVID-19 origin theories continue to do the rounds. The Wuhan lab leak theory had gained credence in recent weeks- with US government teams backing the possibility. Another report suggested that illegally traded wild animals in the Chinese city had triggered the coronavirus pandemic. Now, researchers have published the first ever peer-reviewed analysis of biological evidence taken from the Wuhan wet market.

Researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published an analysis of swabs collected from the wet market in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nature magazine this week.

[08/04, 12:21 am] Farooq: The Chinese research team posted an early version of their study online back in February 2022, but they did not publish the full genetic information that was contained in the samples gathered from the market.

 

In March this year, another international group of researchers shared their own assessment of what those crucial market swabs had revealed, after spotting that the genetic sequences had been posted on a scientific data-sharing website.

This new analysis, which has been validated by other scientists before being published in the journal Nature, includes more important detail about the content of those samples, which were collected from stalls, surfaces, cages and machinery inside the market.

The published findings come amid signs that the lab leak theory is gaining ground among authorities in the US.

The Chinese government has strenuously denied suggestions that the virus originated in a scientific facility, but the FBI said it now believes that scenario is the “most likely”, as does the US Department of Energy.

Various US departments and agencies have investigated the mystery and produced differing conclusions, but on 1 March the FBI’s director accused Beijing of “doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate”, and disclosed the bureau had been convinced of the lab leak theory “for quite some time now”.

The FBI has not made their findings public, which has frustrated some scientists.