A team of scientists say it is "beyond reasonable doubt" the Covid pandemic started with infected animals.

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.

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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.

  • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
    112·
    2 months ago

    There’s a difference between lax safety and conspiracy to engineer a bioweapon. The main motivator of people pushing the Lab Leak conspiracy is that they want some villain to blame all this on.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
      9·
      2 months ago

      Not bioweapons. Covid isn’t dangerous enough.

      The prime conspiracy theory target is Anthony Fauci because some EcoHealth Alliance / NIH coronaviruses bat funding went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

      But you don’t need to subscribe to the Fauci Supervillan theory to suspect an accidental lab leak. China has already had 3 (2004, 2016, 2020) in this list. Pointing this out is not sino bashing (look at the number of US incidents). Accidental lab leaks happen all too regularly.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 months ago

        Back to an earlier point you made, how is it relevant that it was an accidental lab leak anymore? It’s China, they’ve either made better safe guards against possible break outs or made superficial changes for appearances. The international community can’t punish them for an accident that also hurt themselves. Hell, we can’t seem to keep their coast guard from ramming other ships.

        • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
          3·
          2 months ago

          how is it relevant that it was an accidental lab leak anymore?

          Accidental lab leaks unfortunately happen. What is still relevant are the implications. The existence of the virus itself and it’s cover up are the problem.

          The cover up

          Mainstream media labeled anyone who mentioned the lab as a racist conspiracy theorists. Commenting on social media resulted in censorship.

          WHO “invesigation” and Peter Daszak investigating himself.

          Deletion of data from the WIV website.

          Chinese closed policy and destruction of evidence.

          No questioning science

          Nature published a peer review saying that a lab origin was impossible.

          Scientists hypothesising about lab origins were ostracised.

          Source of the virus

          In the wild, the nearest documented virus is 96% similar. Where have the 4% changes in the leaked version come from?

          Have these 4% changes come from purposeful gain of function research?

          Gain of function research in the US was banned in 2014. Did research stop or did funding just move countries?

          Where else is secret GoF research being conducted? Is there sufficient saftey and oversight?

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
      51·
      2 months ago

      Bioweapon is also a strawman in this case, he did not say that.

      In gain of function research more virulent strains are made to study and find cures against. So we have a better understanding of how these viruses mutate, what makes them tick and how we can disrupt that.

      Noone would intentionally set something like that loose.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
        21·
        2 months ago

        There are definitely people saying that covid was an engineered bioweapon and the people saying that have a huge overlap with the people saying that it was a lab leak. Conspiracy theorists need a villain with a plan to make sense of the work and that’s why the lab leak theory keeps coming up.