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Wuhan market was epicentre of pandemic’s start, studies suggest

Report authors say that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 jumped to people from animals sold at the market on two occasions in late 2019 — but some scientists want more definitive evidence.
  1. Amy Maxmen
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Scientists have released three studies that reveal intriguing new clues about how the COVID-19 pandemic started. Two of the reports trace the outbreak back to a massive market that sold live animals, among other goods, in Wuhan, China1,2, and a third suggests that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 spilled over from animals — possibly those sold at the market — to humans at least twice in November or December 20193. Posted on 25 and 26 February, all three are preprints, and so have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

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Nature 603, 15-16 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00584-8

References

  1. Gao, G. et al. Preprint at Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1370392/v1 (2022).

  2. Worobey, M. et al. Preprint at Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6299600 (2022).

  3. Pekar, J. E. et al. Preprint at Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6291628 (2022).

  4. He, W.-T. et al. Cell https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.014 (2022).

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  5. Xiao, X., Newman, C., Buesching, C. D., Macdonald, D. W. & Zhou, Z.-M. Sci. Rep. 11, 11898 (2021).

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  6. Bloom, J. D. et al. Science 372, 694 (2021).

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