Could this cuddly creature have caused the coronavirus pandemic?
Three years after COVID-19 brought the world to its knees, the scientific community stays bitterly divided over the origin of the virus, despite the growing consensus that it was produced on the Wuhan Institute of Virology during function-enhancing research.
But a latest evaluation of genetic material from the infamous Wuhan wet market points to a latest, unlikely offender – the raccoon dog.
Evaluation of genetic sequences collected from the market in January 2020 shows that raccoon dogs sold illegally on the wholesale seafood market in Huanan may have carried and spread the virus on the time of the outbreak, in line with a latest report released in 2020. Atlantic.
Nonetheless, the scientists who conducted the evaluation expressed caution about their very own findings, which don’t conclusively prove that raccoon dogs were the unique host of the virus. The arrangements were also met mockery of some politicians and expertswith one claiming that the raccoon dog hypothesis is nothing greater than a distraction from the mounting evidence that the virus leaked from a lab.
Meanwhile, genetic sequences were reportedly extracted from swabs taken from and near stalls shortly after they were shut down by Chinese authorities following the initial spread of the virus.
“This really reinforces the case for natural origin,” Seema Lakdawala, a
said a virologist at Emory University.
Raccoon dogs are small, heavily built mammals native to East Asia which can be most closely related to foxes. The animals have reportedly been sold illegally on the wet marketplace for years.
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The genetic sequences were published in a database called GISAID by scientists affiliated with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention last week.
They were soon spotted by researchers who pulled them from a database and commenced analyzing them. Just a few days later, the genetic sequences were mysteriously pulled from GISAID without explanation.
The genetic sequence evaluation was performed by Kristian Andersen, a virologist on the Scripps Research Institute in California; Edward Holmes, an evolutionary biologist on the University of Sydney in Australia; and Michael Worobey, a virologist on the University of Arizona.
In line with Atlantic, the trio found that “several surfaces in and around one market stall, including a cart and a shredding machine, produced virus-positive samples that also contained raccoon dog genetic material.”
For the primary time, a fox-like animal has been pointed at as a possible virus host – although scientists have expressed caution about their very own findings.
“Will we know that raccoon dogs were the intermediate host? No,” Andersen bluntly told the Atlantic. “Is it high on my list of potential hosts? Yes, but definitely not the just one.
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![New research has shown that the virus originated in a wholesale seafood market in Wuhan Huanan.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/03/wet-market.jpg?w=1024)
Indeed, just like the Recent York Times test reports: “Mixing the genetic material of the virus and the animal doesn’t prove that the raccoon dog itself was infected. And even when the raccoon was infected, it will be unclear if the animal spread the virus to humans.”
Meanwhile, the possible latest theory has been met with outright mockery from some officials and social media experts.
Republican Representative Jim Jordan tweeted: “They told us #COVID went from bat to pangolin and now to raccoon dog. But in case you think it got here from a lab, you are a conspiracy theorist.
“Too unintentionally, they got here out with this information AFTER the U.S. Department of Energy leans toward a lab leak and Congress begins hearings on the origin of Covid. It’s REVERSING” one other user stated.
![There is growing consensus that the virus accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS_LAB-LEAK.jpg?w=1024)
Indeed, the emergence of this latest theory follows a secret US Department of Energy report declaring – with “little confidence” – that the virus answerable for COVID-19 almost definitely leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
This statement comes greater than a yr after the top of the FBI the reason for the disease was a laboratory accident in Chinawhich killed over 6.8 million people worldwide, including 1.1 million in the US.
The FBI’s decision was made with “moderate confidence” and stays the office’s opinion.