Scientists have confirmed the main theory about the emergence of COVID-19

Newly published genetic data suggests that raccoon dogs carrying SARS-CoV-2

could be at the wholesale seafood marketHuanan at the end of 2019. This sparked the first recorded outbreak of COVID-19. The genetic data was uploaded to a public database and then quickly deleted at the request of the Chinese team that first shared it.

An international team of scientists reported that the samplesSwabs taken in early 2020 in and around the stalls of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market contained genetic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 mixed with DNA from common raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides). Raccoon dogs, relatives of foxes with dark spots around their eyes, are known to carry and transmit the coronavirus, The New York Times reports.

Scientists suggest that raccoon dogs,infected with SARS-CoV-2 may have shed infectious virus during illicit market trading in December 2019. They reached these conclusions by taking into account when and how the swab samples were collected, as well as the fact that the virus cannot survive indefinitely in the environment without a host.

Their analysis has not yet been completed and published.Moreover, it cannot be considered 100% proof that infected raccoon dogs were present at the market. And, if the animals were infected, the studies cannot show how they themselves became infected with the virus or how it spread further.

Back in February 2020, researchersanalyzed the same data, but published only part of it, without mentioning the raccoon dog DNA. In a preprint, they reported the discovery of an “abundance” of Homo sapiens DNA associated with SARS-CoV-2, which they said suggested infected people brought the virus to the market. They said they had not found any evidence pointing to an animal host for the virus. But graphs in the same preprint contradict this statement, showing that animal DNA was found mixed with SARS-CoV-2.

“Critics of the widely supported hypothesis thatthat SARS-CoV-2 jumped from animals to humans may ultimately want more convincing evidence than research can offer,” said Joel Wertheim, an evolutionary biologist, in the journal Science.

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