A team of scientists say it is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak.
They were analysing hundreds of samples collected from Wuhan, China, in January 2020.
The results identify a shortlist of animals – including racoon dogs, civets and bamboo rats – as potential sources of the pandemic.
Despite even highlighting one market stall as a hotspot of both animals and coronavirus, the study cannot provide definitive proof.
The samples were collected by Chinese officials in the early stages of Covid and are one of the most scientifically valuable sources of information on the origins of the pandemic.
…
Their analysis was published last year and the raw data made available to other scientists. Now a team in the US and France says they have performed even more advanced genetic analyses to peer deeper into Covid’s early days.
I know this is off topic, but - why didn’t anyone tell me there’s a species called a raccoon dog?!
Look up some of the Japanese lore about Tanuki (the Japanese name for the raccoon dog). It involves magic, giant scrotums, and all sorts of delightful stuff.
If you like anime, Studio Ghibli (famous for a lot of classics including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and others) did a movie called Pom Poko, which is about tanuki. If you don’t care for subtitles, the English dub is pretty good, and the voice cast stars a lot of well known (for the time) American actors.
I will always upvote a Ghibli recommendation!
You might know of the tanuki, which is specifically the Japanese raccoon dog.
I didn’t know about that one either!
If you’ve ever played Super Mario Bros 3 (or other Mario games where this same suit is found) there’s a Tanooki suit, which is the one that lets you fly!
The raccoon tail lets you fly. The Tanooki suit lets you turn into a statue, but also happens to have a raccoon tail so it also lets you fly.
Ahh yes, the opposite of flying. Thanks for the correction!
There’s also a tanuki critter in world of warcraft
You were told. You just didn’t listen.
Oy!
Wasn’t this known already? Weren’t there all kinds of discussions about shutting down wet markets because of this?
There’s a bunch of indications / conspiracy theories that it might have been a lab leak. Basically there’s not really a way to know unless the Chinese government starts being more forthcoming with information.
The main reason the conspiracy theory started is because the city where it started had a world renowned virus research facility in it.
Of course, the reason the facility is there in the first place is because Wuhan province is a place where a lot of viruses originate naturally (in bat colonies), so it makes sense you research the viruses close to their natural reservoir.
Wuhan province is a place where a lot of viruses originate naturally (in bat colonies)
This is disingenuous. RaTG13 was sourced in Tongguan in Mojiang Hani Autonomous County 1800km from Wuhan.
I don’t have any information to add one way or the other, but it kinda sounds like you’re saying the fact that one bat-bourne illness was found elsewhere, it’s impossible that Wuhan has many or any such viruses too, which seems pretty fallacious.
No. Its pretty fallacious to imply WIV was only looking at local bats.
The wuhan area certainty has many viruses, but none were anywhere close to the sample found 1800 km away, which WIV certainty had a copy of because they sequenced it.
I don’t think anyone said they were only looking at local viri. The original comment said (emphasis mine)
Of course, the reason the facility is there in the first place is because Wuhan province is a place where a lot of viruses originate naturally (in bat colonies), so it makes sense you research the viruses close to their natural reservoir.
So Wuhan was ideal because it’s where a lot of viri originate. That doesn’t imply they only looked at viri from nearby just that the location was chosen because there were so many nearby.
The prior paragraph is also important
The main reason the conspiracy theory started is because the city where it started had a world renowned virus research facility in it.
Left on its own this implies that the lab is the source. However, the next paragraph counters that view. It erroneously implies the local area is full of bats and their species hopping coronaviruses. Not even “China’s Bat Woman” thinks that is likely:-
Yeah but the US media was too busy implying that China manufactured the virus in a bio lab.
Funnily enough China still suffered because it failed to lock down early enough because the government tried to ignore and detain doctors in an effort to control the narrative that everything would be fine.
The US suffered because they nuked their Pandemic emergency pla only like a few years before covid because Trump thought Spanish Fever wouldn’t reincarnate to finish the job on its 100th anniversary lol.
So it was easy to vaguely point at China instead of actually solving the problem.
I don’t know what US media you were consuming in 2020/21, but it was pretty much understood it came from something exotic in a wet market.
Most of us didn’t know what a wet market existed or what it was until COVID. There was some conspiracy shit that the right ate up, and some editorial and opinions on the idea, but the whole bioengineered super virus escaping a lab wasn’t taken that seriously
the whole bioengineered super virus escaping a lab wasn’t taken that seriously
Excellent evidence why there is such a battle over misinformation.
I do recall that story. What I don’t get is why the intelligence agencies had any say in the likely origin. It’s not a factor of “if the virus was in a lab.” It could have been. The fact is that even back then when they had the virus sequenced, they could clearly see it came from a zoonotic source, probably the same one with SARS.
The thing that irked me so bad about it is that it highlights the discrepancy between science and suspicion. Think of how vital DNA has been to crime prosecutions or exonerations. The same thing applies here.
What I don’t get is why the intelligence agencies had any say in the likely origin.
If it did originate during the development of a bioweapon then you would want the intelligence agencies to be as informed as possible. Thankfully none believe that to be the case.
they could clearly see it came from a zoonotic source
Yes. 96% zoonotic. It’s that latest 4% that is of interest. Particularly the fully functional cleavage site at the S1, S2 junction.
Wasn’t this disproven already? Covid has been detected in human waste matter samples from Autumn 2019 in Italy.
Overall, the results of this blind retesting of a selected set of samples indicate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in some SMILE samples collected in the prepandemic period. The oldest samples found positive for IgM by both laboratories were collected on 10 October 2019 (Lombardy), 11 November 2019 (Lombardy) and 5 February 2020 (Lazio), the latter with neutralizing antibodies. Two additional samples collected on 17 December 2019 (Campania) and 28 January 2020 (Lombardy) tested as IgG positive by VisMederi and positive for IgG S1 and IgG S1+NP by Erasmus. Additional IgM positive cases could have been detected also by Erasmus by lowering the cut-off of the commercial IgM assay. The older among these putative additional IgM positive samples was collected on 3 September 2019 in the Veneto region, one of the first and mostly severely affected COVID-19 regions.
I don’t really understand what this is actually saying?
Surely, if this were saying “covid started in italy” or “covid was around in 2019” that would rate more song and dance than a single obscure research paper?
These findings do not at all suggest that the virus originated in Italy, but they endorse the idea that the virus was likely spreading in China before the first known cases and that could have been circulated by travelers given direct the connections between China and European and US countries, particularly the Northern West and East Italian regions, which are among the most industrialized and connected areas of Italy.
There’s a lot more than a single obscure research paper but that’s the best one in terms of science in my opinion. It was quite broadly covered news (in Europe at least?) when the virus was first found in waste water samples from Milan from the same period.
We knew it was in Europe before 2020 all the way back in June 2020: https://www.reuters.com/article/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/italy-sewage-study-suggests-covid-19-was-there-in-december-2019-idUSKBN23Q1J8/
By November 2020 it was pushed back as far as September 2019: https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-11-17/COVID-19-was-spreading-in-Italy-by-September-2019-study-indicates-VuSqUttP8s/index.html
As someone else replied, it isn’t saying Covid started in Italy, but rather that it definitely didn’t start because someone ate bat soup from a wet market in Wuhan in December 2019. Well, the science is just stating as a fact that Covid was in these samples from Italy in 2019. Everything else is inferred.
It was 2020. We had people shouting about “the China Virus” and others defending the cultural importance of wet markets and others saying it was a bioweapon from a lab and others saying it didn’t exist at all.
It seemed to suit absolutely nobody’s narrative that
- it took longer to be detected than previously thought, and lots of doctors missed it
- we don’t really know where it started exactly, and can’t really ever know without a concerted investigation of the same sort done in Italy
- international travel and globalisation as well as illegal trade of exotic animals and their carcasses makes it all pretty much guesswork, since Indonesian civit poachers on Filipino boats in the South China Sea don’t submit wastewater samples
- ultimately its source was inconsequential compared to how we actually responded and what we retained afterwards (nothing, it seems)
Off topic, but “Genetic Ghosts” would be a sweet band name. I’d go see them.
I thought the same. What kind of music do you reckon they’d play?
They’d be the opposite of religious metal, probably be like some chipper disney sounding shit with dark realistic themes.
Eating animals causes pandemics from zoonotic diseases. More at 11.
Being near live animals is more dangerous.
Would have far less human/animal face time if we didn’t eat so much of them, don’t you think?
Face time probably isn’t the main factor.
If we didn’t eat so many birds and swine then there would be less animals in close quarters and less chance of new bird/swine flus developing.
No doubt that’s a factor. Implied in my comment (though maybe not well conveyed) is that there would be far fewer animals in captivity if we didn’t eat them.
But what we’re concerned about in the OP and the thread is zoonotic diseases that affect humans. Those surely wouldn’t infect humans at the rate we see today if we weren’t raising them for food and therefore in close proximity to them.
Agreed. And un(der)regulated capitalism multiplies this by forcing cramped, low cost living conditions for animals.
You don’t even need to eat them; just being in close proximity to them and interacting with them is enough.
On the other hands, cows, chickens, and humans came together to create a smallpox vaccine, so there’s that at least.
Yes, it’s just that eating animals has a distinct history of causing horrible pandemics in humans. See e.g. the 1918 H1N1 pandemic which killed tens of millions and was likely started by hogs or chickens farmed in rural Kansas, swine flu which killed hundreds of thousands and whose name speaks for itself, and COVID-19 which killed millions and is well-understood to have originated in a wet market.
Besides all the other reasons that it’s terrible, animal agriculture is a hotbed for transmitting zoonotic diseases to humans and combining existing human diseases with animal ones.
As someone currently down with covid I thought that was state of knowledge long time ago.
Conspiracy theorists have still been spreading the lab leak theory without proof for awhile now because China is the current scary boogeyman. I get that there was lab there studying these diseases, but guessing isn’t how science works, and the wet markets have been known to be a possible source of diseases for a long time now by scientists. I remember warnings about this scenario coming up awhile ago.
Lot of diseases come from China probably for similar reasons: it’s crowded and close contacts with lots of animals. No one thought the 1956 flu could be a lab leak, or SARS, or H7N9, etc. People just have conspiracy theories about this one because it turned into the biggest pandemic of them all, which is just the roll of the dice of all the diseases coming out of there.
People just have conspiracy theories about this one because it turned into the biggest pandemic of them all,
No, it’s because leaked gain of function research is a plausible scenario
which is just the roll of the dice of all the diseases coming out of there.
Maybe we should be more careful when manufacturing thousands of dice with sixes all over them.
including racoon dogs, civets and bamboo rats
No Bats? Oh maaaaaan
>I think they determined that the virus that spread to humans was bats that transferred to something in the market (aka intermediate hosts). That virus would have spread there, while technically the bats could have infected humans.
Wuhan market didn’t sell bats.
Also, the only bats with a (96%) similar covid strain were in caves 1000 miles away.
However, samples from those bats were stored at the wuhan institute of virology.
Very first sentence quoted above. You don’t even have to go to the article:
A team of scientists say it is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak.
No amount of evidence or scientific consensus can convince a conspiracy theorist…
And yes, I know:
Despite even highlighting one market stall as a hotspot of both animals and coronavirus, the study cannot provide definitive proof.
Therefore lab leak, right?
The samples were collected by Chinese officials in the early stages of Covid and are one of the most scientifically valuable sources of information on the origins of the pandemic.
This Part makes me question things a bit. China is not really known for being honest about things happening in China.
Questioning things is fine. On the other hand, it’s pretty hard to fake the ability to trace DNA to a specific market stall.
On top of that, the person I replied to is not questioning. They’ve already decided it’s definitely a lab leak. See all of their other comments.
Ahhh okay, nvm then
The study itself is quite balanced and honest about data collection. It doesn’t rule out a lab origin like the article claims.
our study does not rule out human-to-animal transmission, as the sampling was carried out after the human infection within the market. Thus, the possibility of potential introduction of the virus to the market through infected humans, or cold-chain products, cannot yet be ruled out.
I suppose its mere coincidence that patient zero was a scientist that was experimenting with covid and its potential to transmit to humans. Pure coincidence.
Yes, that’s exactly what happened. Except it didn’t and science isn’t based on your feelings on an unsubstantiated anecdote and even IF it were real, real scientists with real brains are gonna figure this out. Not you.
“Sought hospital care” = DEFINITELY COVID!
There is NO OTHER POSSIBLE INFECTION THEY COULD HAVE HAD!
The only virus that infects humans, especially humans who study viruses is COVID!
FACT!
(This is some weak-ass shit. Especially since the article you pasted even says COVID likely didn’t come for a lab. You didn’t even read it.)
the article you pasted even says COVID likely didn’t come for a lab.
It’s clever how they mislead people into thinking that. The scientists actually say.
It is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market
Which doesn’t necessarily imply a zoonotic origin.
You didn’t even read it.
You didn’t understand it. The paper and data they are working from states
Yes. As I said, no amount of evidence matters to conspiracy mongers. It’s always, “you can’t prove it didn’t happen!”
In their Nazi lab on the dark side of the moon
Note, this evidence doesn’t rule out the preliminary scenario of a scientist from the bioLab visiting the wet market and infecting/contaminating some of the animal’s there.
our study does not rule out human-to-animal transmission, as the sampling was carried out after the human infection within the market. Thus, the possibility of potential introduction of the virus to the market through infected humans, or cold-chain products, cannot yet be ruled out.
Duh, it’s so simple. The lab released infected animals to the wet market. All bases covered.
I’ll take my research grant now.
(This is all said non-serious to be clear.)
I would love to see a picture of that ONE STALL that is thought to have been a hotbed. Whoever runs that stall must be quite a character, too. Golly it’s fun to visit markets in new countries.
Unless… a plausible alternative to my imagination is that it looks like any other open air fresh meat stall, just with more exotic flesh… And if that’s the case you can keep your photos.
But just in case. Anyone?
I mean you’ve seen people with COVID by now; did they look much different?
Huh? No, I want to see how chaotic that stall might be. I’m imagining stuff and species of all varieties.
Danny Phantom caused Covid?
