Where did the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic come from?

Where did the SARS-CoV-2 virus originate? Did it come from an animal – a zoonotic event just like the outbreaks of SARS-CoV in 2002 and MERS-CoV in 2012? Or was it created in a laboratory and accidentally leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

Science continues to evolve, and we should remain open-minded, but up to date, all the available scientific evidence strongly suggests a zoonotic origin for SARS-CoV-2, where the virus would have jumped from a bat to an intermediate host before jumping into humans.

We have strong evidence that the pandemic’s epicenter originated from the Huanan market in Wuhan, more precisely from stalls known to sell diverse live wild animals.

More recent evidence also suggests that animals susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 were also present at the market when the pandemic started.

No one can say that an accidental lab leak is impossible. In fact, other pathogens have made their way out of labs in the past, but in all those cases, the diseases were known at the time and scientific evidence was there to support the claim. For SARS-CoV-2, there is not a single piece of evidence that suggests a human-made and/or accidental lab leak origin of the virus.

It is important to remember that our conclusions should be based on evidence, not on the lack thereof.

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Where did the SARS-CoV-2 virus originate? While most scientists believe it came from an animal source like the outbreaks of SARS and MERS, there is growing interest in the lab leak theory. The origins are still being investigated, let’s take a look #ScienceUpFirst

[1/3] pic.twitter.com/F9t4yOgm12

— ScienceUpFirst | LaScienced’Abord (@ScienceUpFirst) April 6, 2023

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