The first known case of Covid-19 was an animal seller and not an accountant in the Chinese city of Wuhan, not an accountant who did not appear to be related to the market, but whose case led to speculation that the virus could have leaked from a laboratory , according to an American study.
The origin of the virus that causes Covid-19 remains a mystery and an important source of tension between China and the United States.
A joint study by China and the World Health Organization this year ruled out the possibility that Covid-19 came from a laboratory, saying it was most likely to infect humans naturally, possibly through wildlife trade.
A team of WHO-led experts spent four weeks in and around the central city of Wuhan with Chinese scientists and said in a joint report in March that the Sars-CoV-2 virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal. , but that further research was needed.
The accountant, who is widely believed to be the first person with Covid-19, said his first symptoms appeared on December 16, several days later than originally known, said Michael Worobey, head of ecology and evolutionary biology at University of Arizona. in the study published in the journal Science on Thursday.
To deride and dismiss the accounts of these individuals as hearsay is beyond disrespectful.
It begs the question, why?
— Michael Worobey (@MichaelWorobey) November 19, 2021
The confusion was caused by a dental problem that a man had on December 8, the study notes.
“His symptoms came after multiple cases of workers in the Juanan market, making a female seafood seller there the earliest known case, with the onset of the disease on December 11,” the study said.
He said most of the early symptoms were related to the market, specifically to the western part where raccoon dogs were trapped, and provided strong indications of the pandemic’s origins in the live animal market.
Professor Worobey was one of about 15 experts who published a column in Science in mid-May demanding a serious examination of the dissertation that the virus had leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan.
In this latest article, he argued that his research into the origin of the epidemic “provides strong evidence for the origin of the pandemic in the animal market.”
An earlier critique of market theory was that because health authorities were warning of suspected market-related illness as early as December 30, 2019, this would have introduced a bias that has led to more cases being identified there than elsewhere. the attention.
To refute this argument, Professor Worobey analyzed cases reported by two hospitals before the alarm was sounded. These cases were also largely related to the market, and those that were not, however, were geographically concentrated around it.
“In this city of 11 million people, half of the first cases are related to a part the size of a soccer field,” Worobey told the New York Times.
“It becomes very difficult to explain this pattern if the epidemic did not start in the market.”
Peter Daszak, a disease specialist who participated in the WHO research team, said he was convinced by Professor Worobey’s analysis. “This December 8 date was a mistake,” he told the Times.
The WHO last month proposed a new team of experts to investigate the source of the coronavirus.
Guardian
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