A new American study on the origins of Covid-19 links the first known case of infection to the Huanan market, the Wuhan market where wild animals were also sold, and postpones the date on which the disease manifested itself by eight days in what until to date it is considered “patient zero”, taking it from 8 to 16 December 2019. According to what the virologist Michael Worobey writes in the journal Science, the first known case of Covid-19 is that of a Wuhan market seller, who fell ill there ‘December 11, 2019, and not a man with no ties to Huanan; a fact, the latter, which had fueled speculations on the origin of the virus in the laboratory.
Although there is no definitive proof, the new information seems to link the virus to an animal origin: as early as last May, Worobey was among the 15 global experts who had asked, again in Science, for evidence on the possibility that the virus could have been born in a laboratory. Worobey analyzed the cases reported by two hospitals before the warning was issued: infections were largely linked to the market, and those that were not, were still concentrated in its vicinity.
“In a city of 11 million people, half of the first cases are related to a place that is the size of a football field,” Worobey told The New York Times. “It becomes difficult to explain the model if the virus has not started on the market.” Also supporting Worobey’s thesis is Peter Daszak, one of the members of the World Health Organization team who visited Wuhan in early 2021 to investigate the origin of the virus. “The date of December 8,” he told the New York Times, “was a mistake.”
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