New preliminary evidence suggests coronavirus jumped from animals to humans multiple times
TNN Bureau. Updated: 9/25/2021 1:57:43 PM
World
Director, Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University
The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, has been hotly debated.
This debate has caused substantial difficulties in the Australia-China relationship, with a call by Foreign Minister Marise Payne for another inquiry into its origin being considered by China as a hostile act.
What's not in doubt is the closest relatives of the virus are found in bats. How, where and when the virus spilled over into humans is the contentious issue.
One widely supported hypothesis is the spillover occurred in the wet markets of Wuhan, where many species of wildlife from across China are held in crowded conditions.
However, there's no evidence the species of bats in which the closest relatives of SARS-CoV-2 are found were sold through the Wuhan wet markets at any time in the two years before the pandemic.
This hypothesis requires the existence of a bridge host , another species that becomes infected via spillover from the original bat hosts, and then passes the virus onto humans.