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| Where did the corona epidemic start? Have scientists solved this puzzle? |
A team of scientists has claimed that they have found the best evidence of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus so far.
It's a new twist in the politicized and complicated investigation into the century's worst pandemic, which has already seen several conflicting theories that have not been fully substantiated.
A recent analysis points to an animal in this context and is based on evidence obtained three years ago from a wild animal market in Wuhan, China.
It should be remembered that this area has been the center of this virus since the beginning of the Corona epidemic. In the year 2020, when Corona was a mysterious disease, China's Center for Disease Control took some samples from this market.
Genetic information from these samples was recently made public by a team of researchers who believe that raccoon dogs became the host for the virus that transmitted the disease to humans.
According to the analysis, the DNA of raccoon dogs, which were being sold for meat in the market, was found in the same places where the positive test for the coronavirus was found.
However, the search for the origin of the outbreak still lacks conclusive evidence as the market has been closed, and all the animals there have been killed.
Scientists are describing the three-year delay in releasing this important research by China as a big scandal.
The research comes at a time when US officials are beginning to believe the theory that the coronavirus leaked from a laboratory.
The Chinese government has vehemently denied claims that the coronavirus originated in a scientific laboratory, but the US agency FBI now considers it to be largely true. The US Department of Energy also believes so.
Several US departments and agencies have been investigating the mystery, and on March 1, the FBI director accused Beijing of making every effort to mislead China and revealed that the FBI had long believed that the epidemic had leaked from the laboratory.
Until now, the FBI has not made its information public, which has frustrated scientists.
The BBC spoke to some of the scientists who have been investigating the origins of the epidemic for three years. He believes that the new research is perhaps the best attempt to answer this question and says that the distance between the West and China is making it difficult to find a solution to the first one.
What does the new research say?
Dr. Florence Debier is a senior researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences in Paris.
He was the one who discovered these genetic swabs. He told the BBC World Service that he became obsessed with the data when he discovered its existence.
After they downloaded the codes into a genetic database called GISAID, they worked with colleagues to find out which animal the samples belonged to.
"The results were appearing on the screen in front of us and one name was coming up, Raccoon Dog, Raccoon Dog," he said.
"Let's see the animal and the virus together, but that doesn't prove that these animals were also infected with the virus," she says. However, this conclusion can be drawn from what we saw.
Dr. Eddie Holmes, who was involved in the same research, says that this is the best evidence so far that the disease was transmitted from an animal.
However, he says that we will not find the specific animal from which the virus was transmitted.
"It's also amazing that we got this data and it's not just telling us that a particular animal was there, but it's also showing us where those animals were in that market," he says. '
What can scientists do to trace the origin of Corona?
Further research can be done with the help of newly obtained data but it will be a complicated process.
Professor Marion Koopmans of Rotterdam's Erasmus University was part of a World Health Organization research team that visited Wuhan in 2020.
He told the BBC that it can now be traced back to the specific stalls where the animals were brought from for sale.
However, she says that if the buying and selling were taking place illegally, it would be difficult to trace.
However, there may still be biological evidence from the farms from which these animals were brought.
If scientists can find animals that have antibodies that show they have been exposed to the coronavirus, that could help.
However, Professor Holmes says it would be very difficult to detect the epidemic virus in an animal.
Has the puzzle of the origin of the epidemic been solved?
We cannot say definitively.
The search for this evidence has become politicized. While the theory that the virus originated in wild animals and then transferred to humans gains weight, another theory is trying to draw attention to the virus leaking from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The theory has gained importance since the FBI's statement.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Holmes mentioned another similar study. He said that now we know that the outbreak started near the market where these animals were present.
He believes that the outbreak did not start from the laboratory, which is 30 kilometers away, and there is not a single piece of evidence that the laboratory did.
The pass marks an early case.
The delay in releasing this data is also fueling anger at China.
Professor Holmes says the data is three years old. The data were posted in January on the website where Dr. Florence Debier discovered them.
However, as soon as the Chinese researchers learned that other scientists were aware of the data's presence on the website, they hid it again.
On March 17, the director of the World Health Organization said that 'every piece of data is important and everything related to the origin of Corona should be given to the international community.'
Dr. Holmes says, "Humans got this disease from a wild animal, and this has been the case throughout history." All we can do is distance ourselves from this animal and be more careful because it could happen again.'