The zoonotic origin of SARS-CoV-2
I’ll start by saying that science doesn’t deal in proof. Science draws provisional conclusions based on the weight of evidence. A scientific hypothesis is one that can be tested and potentially falsified by experiment.
The hypothesis that the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, originated from a natural infection just gained more support in a paper published in the journal “Cell.”
“The viruses most closely related to the original SARS coronavirus were found in palm civets and raccoon dogs in southern China, hundreds of miles from the bat populations that were their original source,” study author Michael Worobey, professor and head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Arizona, explained.
“For more than two decades the scientific community has concluded that the live-wildlife trade was how those hundreds of miles were covered. We’re seeing exactly the same pattern with SARS-CoV-2.”
“These findings fly in the face of the claim that COVID-19 was lab grown while SARS was a natural outbreak.
“At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too extreme for a zoonotic origin,” Wertheim said. “This paper shows that it isn’t unusual and is, in fact, extremely similar to the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 in 2002.”
“SARS and COVID-19 are both examples of zoonotic spillover events, which are becoming more common across the world as human-animal interactions increase due to wildlife trade, increased urbanization, and habitat loss. This research suggests that monitoring sarbecoviruses in bat populations may be a way to indicate where the next potential spillover event could occur, and by understanding the evolutionary history of these viruses and other pathogens, aid in our efforts to combat future outbreaks.”
Based on these data and everything we know about this group of coronaviruses, the most parsimonious hypothesis is that COVID-19 had a zoonotic origin. The burden of proof is on those who posit a lab origin to come up with contravening evidence. While I’ve read the conspiracy theories supporting a lab origin, I haven’t seen any lab origin theories grounded in data and evidence.
COVID-19 virus probably spread to humans through wildlife trade
The hypothesis that the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, originated from a natural infection just gained more support in a paper published in the journal “Cell.”
“The viruses most closely related to the original SARS coronavirus were found in palm civets and raccoon dogs in southern China, hundreds of miles from the bat populations that were their original source,” study author Michael Worobey, professor and head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Arizona, explained.
“For more than two decades the scientific community has concluded that the live-wildlife trade was how those hundreds of miles were covered. We’re seeing exactly the same pattern with SARS-CoV-2.”
“These findings fly in the face of the claim that COVID-19 was lab grown while SARS was a natural outbreak.
“At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too extreme for a zoonotic origin,” Wertheim said. “This paper shows that it isn’t unusual and is, in fact, extremely similar to the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 in 2002.”
“SARS and COVID-19 are both examples of zoonotic spillover events, which are becoming more common across the world as human-animal interactions increase due to wildlife trade, increased urbanization, and habitat loss. This research suggests that monitoring sarbecoviruses in bat populations may be a way to indicate where the next potential spillover event could occur, and by understanding the evolutionary history of these viruses and other pathogens, aid in our efforts to combat future outbreaks.”
Based on these data and everything we know about this group of coronaviruses, the most parsimonious hypothesis is that COVID-19 had a zoonotic origin. The burden of proof is on those who posit a lab origin to come up with contravening evidence. While I’ve read the conspiracy theories supporting a lab origin, I haven’t seen any lab origin theories grounded in data and evidence.
COVID-19 virus probably spread to humans through wildlife trade
Joel:
Maybe it is my understanding which is the issue?
I always thought of Covid and SARS to be the same, And I also notice CoV-1 and COVID-19 (*different strains?”). Mutation of the Covids once in human? (I think I have a post around here when I started to write on the topic (you helped me with it).
Please update my data base.
@Bill,
SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that started the COVID-19 pandemic. It has mutated many times since jumping to humans and circling the globe. The question in the Cell paper is the basis for the original jump. Mutations since then are irrelevant to the hypothesis.
Joel:
Of course it is irrelevant. Just getting a better understanding.
SARS-COV-2 is the name of the virus. COVID is the name of the disease. It’s like HIV, the virus, and AIDS, the disease. Older diseases tend to have a pathogen named for the disease like smallpox virus or botulism infection. More recently studied diseases often use the existing naming system for the pathogen and come up with something for the disease.
@Kaleberg,
Yes, I know. If you read my post, you’ll see that I wrote in the second paragraph: “. . . the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic . . .”
I have a BA in microbiology. I was a medical school professor for 37 years, where I taught about HIV as an example of an RNA virus and the mechanism of nucleoside analogs in AIDS treatments, among many topics. I was in the Moderna phase III mRNA vaccine trial and have followed the pandemic closely since January of 2020, when I attended a talk about it at our vaccine center. As a molecular biologist, I’ve followed the evidence on the virus origins with great interest, which inspired today’s post.
Did you have a point?
Are you standing by your statement that there’s no evidence and data pointing to the possibility it was from a lab? Is that really your claim?
@Tom,
Yep. If you have a link showing such data, post it.