there were two variants introduced into humansTogether, the researchers say this evidence paints a picture that Sars-Cov-2 was present in live mammals that were sold at Huanan market in late 2019. They say it was transmitted into people who were working or shopping there in two separate "spillover events", where a human contracted the virus from an animal.
"That was really puzzling that most cases could not be linked to the market," said Prof Robertson. "But knowing what we know about the virus now, it's exactly what we would expect - because many people only get very mildly ill, so they would be out in the community transmitting the virus to others and the severe cases would be hard to link to each other."
"In a city covering more than 3,000 sq miles , the area with the highest probability of containing the home of someone who had one of the earliest Covid-19 cases in the world was an area of a few city blocks, with the Huanan market smack dab inside it," said Prof Worobey. "So we have confirmation of animals we now know are susceptible [to Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19] were sold there in late 2019."Over the last two years, the search for the origin of the deadly pandemic turned from a scientific investigation into a toxic political row.
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Which mammal species was infected except Homo sapiens?