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Scientists have put forward a new version of the origin of the coronavirus: the market in Wuhan has nothing to do with it
Moscow, October 14, FederalPress. Sergei Netesov, a molecular biologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Bionanotechnology, Microbiology and Virology at Novosibirsk State University, said that a recent scientific article on the “market” origins of COVID-19 will likely be retracted.
Earlier, the journal Cell published the results of a study by an international team of scientists showing that COVID-19 originated in the Huanan market in Wuhan. They analyzed samples taken from the market at the start of the pandemic in January 2020 and found that the common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2 matched its global ancestor. Thirty-two percent of early COVID-19 cases were linked to the market.
It was also noted that all samples that tested positive for coronavirus contained DNA from wild animals, with the exception of bats and lizards. Academician Netesov is skeptical about this data, arguing that SARS-CoV-2 is different from other natural viruses.
The scientist is convinced that in the era of active international travel, creating a dangerous virus with rapid spread would be pointless and dangerous. He calls for focusing on the WHO position, which does not exclude hypotheses of natural origin or laboratory leaks.
According to one version, it was previously reported that the coronavirus did not appear naturally, but in a laboratory. Scientists are inclined to believe that this infection was transmitted from bats to humans. The first sample of COVID-19 was found in the Huanan market in China.