The end! This is how coronavirus originated

A major international study, published on Thursday, said the virus "started to live" in a wet market in Wuhan, China, and was probably not part of a scientific experiment.

Scientists tested the genetic material of animals sold at the market in 2019 and found traces of the coronavirus in some species.

They point out that this is the first time that scientists have "isolated" animals that may be responsible for transmitting the virus to humans.

"This adds another layer to the accumulating evidence pointing to the same scenario -- that infected animals were brought to market in mid-to-late November 2019, triggering the pandemic," said study author Christian Andersen of Scripps Research.

The raccoon dog, a fox-like animal common in East Asia, is believed to be the largest carrier of the virus. Other animals, such as palm civets, the bamboo rat and the Malayan porcupine, have also been found to carry Covid-19 before it spread to humans.

This is not a definitive list because many key animal species were removed from the market before the Chinese health team arrived, said Florence Debard of France's National Center for Scientific Research, who led the study.

Scientists note that many of the early cases in Wuhan, a city of 12 million people, were market workers. For a long time, there was a controversy about the source of the pandemic that claimed around 7 million lives, and one of the theories is that the virus leaked from the laboratory of the Institute of Virology in Wuhan.

This theory gained attention after FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the bureau believes that "Covid-19 most likely originated in a laboratory controlled by the Chinese authorities", reports the Daily Mail.

U.S. President Joe Biden failed to stop the lab leak story after ordering an investigation into the theory. Following the publication of this latest study, scientists now insist that the pandemic was market-driven as originally reported.

The study is based on a new analysis of data released by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data was collected from more than 800 samples in and around Huanan Market in early January 2020, and from genetic samples from the first patients who had Covid-19.

On January 1, 2020, after the animals were removed and just hours after the market was closed, investigators from the China CDC went to the market to collect samples. They took samples from floors, walls and other surfaces and returned a few days later to focus on surfaces in stalls selling wildlife, such as cages and carts used to transport animals.

They also took samples from drains and sewage. Experts warn that lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic have not been learned, with the possibility that we will be hit again by pandemics caused by the wildlife trade.

"This is the riskiest thing we can do, to take wild animals that are teeming with viruses and then play with fire by bringing them into contact with people living in the heart of big cities, whose population density makes it easier for these viruses to take hold," Michael Woroby of the University of Arizona, one of the authors of the study, said. Other experts agree.

Commenting separately, Professor James Wood, an epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the study, said:

"Although efforts have been made globally to tighten laboratory biosecurity to ensure that viruses cannot accidentally escape, little or nothing has been done to limit the trade in wild animals."