A study published in the journal ‘Science‘by researcher Michael Worobey, an expert in the evolution of viruses from the University of Arizona (United States), has revealed the first known case of COVID-19, a fishmonger at the wholesale seafood market de Huanan, en Wuhan (China).
Investigating health records and genomic and epidemiological data from the early days of COVID-19, this American scientist has developed a detailed picture of the first events that led to this global pandemic.
According to your analysis, this seafood seller fell ill with coronavirus on December 11 of 2019, and informed the authorities that same day of several possible cases of COVID-19 in clinics and hospitals that were near the Wuhan market.
Along with this, Worobey has discovered a discrepancy in China report and the World Health Organization (WHO) on the origin of the pandemic. According to this document, a patient with no connection to the market had been considered the earliest known case of COVID-19, having presented symptoms on December 8, 2019.
However, this new study has shown that this patient did not actually present symptoms until a week later, on December 16, 2019, which “dramatically changes the picture presented by the report of China and the WHO “and makes this fishmonger from Huanan become the first known case.
“The case of December 8 has been used by the proponents of the theory that the virus came out of a laboratory to argue that SARS-CoV-2 could not have emerged on the market, as the earliest case had no exposure there. In addition, it has led them to affirm that the pandemic began in the facilities of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, since those are close to where this person lived and bought. But it is clear that this patient became ill after the first cases were reported in Huanan, so the virus was already circulating at that time, “explained Worobey.
The seafood market, the “most probable” source of the origin of the virus
Thus, through methodical analysis, it provides evidence that dispels the theory that the virus was leaked from a research laboratory. Worobey considers, in fact, that the “most likely” source of the origin of the coronavirus is the market de Huanan.
This new study details that in the Huanan market and three other Wuhan live animal markets live mammals susceptible to contracting coronavirus were sold, including raccoon dogs, immediately before the pandemic. Likewise, it reports that during the first SARS outbreak, viruses similar to the coronavirus were found in raccoon dogs, which was facilitated by interactions between animals and humans in China’s live animal markets.
Worobey set out to resolve several crucial events that took place in December 2019 and January 2020: “The question I wanted to address was whether the apparent connection of the first cases with the Huanan market it was real or just a mirage, because that’s where people were looking for cases. ”
To do this, the researcher imagined a scenario: “As the first outbreak of SARS from 2002-2003 was associated with animals sold in wet markets, there was a system in which every time a doctor came across a patient with pneumonia, he asked him if he worked in a wet market, and if he did, that case was recorded as something very interesting. But if a person presented with identical symptoms but answered negatively to that question, it was not recorded as a case. ”
In this scenario, the researcher explains that it would be hypothetically possible to end a city like Wuhan, with a population of 11 million people, in which 50 cases of early COVID-19 infections appeared linked to the market, while at the same time , there could be 10,000 cases that went unnoticed in the rest of the city.
By clarifying that it was physicians, and not epidemiologists, who first discovered COVID-19 patients, Worobey demonstrates that cases with a history of exposure in the Huanan market could not be “screened” before anyone else had. identified the market as an epidemiological risk factor. Therefore, he argues that “there was a real prevalence of early market-associated COVID-19 cases de Huanan”.
In the same way, add that since the market is the size of a football field in a city of 11 million people “it would be difficult to explain the pattern of early infections there if the pandemic did not start in the market when a virus was crossed from an animal sold to a person.”
“It is important to remember that since only about 7% of SARS-CoV-2 infections lead to hospitalization, most go unnoticed, which means that we should not expect the first detected patients to be the first infected or related to the Huanan market. The way the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded appears to be basically a direct replay of the original SARS outbreak, “he concludes.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
