Earliest known Covid case tracked down to Wuhan wet market vendor, scientist claims – World News
The earliest known case of the Covid outbreak has been tracked down to a female vendor at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, a scientist has claimed
Medical staff transferring patients in Wuhan on January 20 at the beginning of the pandemic (
Image: STRINGER/EPA-EFE/REX)
A female vendor at a wet market in Wuhan is the earliest known case of the Covid pandemic, a new report has claimed.
It was previously said by the World Health Organization (WHO) that a 41-year-old accountant who lived 30km (19 miles) from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in China, and had no link to it, was “patient zero” of the pandemic.
But now it has been claimed there were cases of Covid before this accountant was infected.
This was despite it being thought the zoonotic virus originated from the wet market and contributed to theories the virus could have leaked from a lab.
The new study was published on Thursday in the journal Science, by Michael Worobey who is head of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.
Worobey found discrepancies in the original timeline by going through medical journals and media reports.
A butcher selling yak meat at a wet market (stock image)
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Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
The accountant first reported his symptoms on December 16, several days later than initially known.
However, on December 8, he had a dental appointment which the study says caused confusion into thinking he was “patient zero” when he actually had problems with his teeth.
By the time he was showing symptoms there were multiple cases of workers at the Huanan market, Worobey claims.
The study goes through the chronology of the outbreak, and finds a high proportion of early cases to either be workers at the market, or have some link to it.
This means a female seafood vendor at Huanan market is now believed to be the first known case of Covid.
It adds that the earliest and most symptomatic cases were linked to the western section of the market where racoon dogs were caged, providing further evidence of the animal-human origin of the pandemic which has dominated the world since.
“In this city of 11 million people, half of the early cases are linked to a place that’s the size of a soccer field,” Worobey told the New York Times.
Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was at the centre of the Covid outbreak
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Image:
WEibo)
“It becomes very difficult to explain that pattern if the outbreak didn’t start at the market.”
The new study has not settled the debate over where the virus originated, with many still arguing that it leaked from a lab, specifically from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has a campus around eight miles away from the Huanan market, across the Yangtze River.
Studies of changes in the virus’ genome, including one by Worobey himself, suggest the first infection happened in roughly mid-November, weeks before the first known case.
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