BEIJING — Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA comingled with the virus, suggesting the pandemic may have originated from animals, not a lab, international experts say.
He criticized China for not sharing the genetic information earlier, telling a press briefing that “this data could have and should have been shared three years ago.” They were then removed, but not before a French biologist spotted the information by chance and shared it with a group of scientists based outside China that’s looking into the origins of the coronavirus.
The canines, named for their raccoon-like faces, are often bred for their fur and sold for meat in animal markets across China. WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, cautioned that the analysis did not find the virus within any animal, nor did it find any hard evidence that any animals infected humans.
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Unearthed genetic sequences from China market may point to animal origin of COVID-19A scientific sleuth has identified previously undisclosed genetic data from a food market in Wuhan, China, that may support the theory that coronavirus-infected animals there triggered the COVID19 pandemic. Lol Who paid for that one! LOL!!
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