New Delhi: A Chinese scientist has claimed that the COVID-19 virus may have originated in humans. Tong Yigang of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology explained that the genetic sequences of viral samples taken from the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan were “almost identical” to those of patients infected with the coronavirus. He says that this likely suggests that COVID-19 may have originated from humans.
The latest claim deals a massive blow to the theory that the virus jumped from animals to humans at the Wuhan market. Tong was speaking at a press conference held by the Chinese State Council about the research into the origins of the virus.
At the event, a Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researcher, Zhou Lei, said that the place where COVID-19 was first discovered might not have necessarily been the place where the virus originated. He also called for global scientific collaboration to trace the origins of the virus.
Tong said that scientists took more than 1,300 environmental and frozen animal samples from the market between January 2020 and March 2020. They then isolated three strains of the virus from the environmental samples, adding that evidence to support recent studies that suggest racoon dogs were the origin of the COVID-19 virus is also not sufficient to fully prove that racoon dogs were the reason for the virus, Wion reported quoting agencies.
Dozens of people who were infected by the virus in the initial days had visited the Wuhan market or were linked to the stalls there. The wet market is infamous for selling bats, raccoon dogs, pangolins and other exotic animals which are known for carrying similar coronaviruses.
A new paper on the origins of the virus also thwarts earlier claims by Chinese virologists that the virus naturally emerged in the market. “The evidence provided in this study is not sufficient to support such a hypothesis…,” the CDC researchers said.
“The possibility of the potential introduction of the virus to the market through infected humans, or cold chain products, cannot be ruled out yet.” Researchers have now argued that humans brought the virus to the market, from where it spread as the market acted like a super-spreader.
