One if the biggest questions about the coronavirus is whether it began in the Wuhan wet market or somewhere else. There's also another development about the pangolin as the main host of the virus.
It is well accepted that the world-famous Huanan seafood market in Wuhan is ground zero, but some reports point it to another place at an earlier date. The Chinese narrative spread around is that it is nothing but Chinese origin.
The next part is that the virus was spread by an infected animal as the middle host that infected humans. Reports connect the pangolin as the animal responsible for the viral transmission.
In the present, the coronavirus has racked up to 3,221,029 cases and 228,252 deaths, with 1,005,079 recovered, still the pandemic took a big chunk of human life from Wuhan days. From the first cases in Hubei to other countries. It took a while for the WHO to call it a pandemic, till it was too late.
One of the footages circulated earlier show that pangolins cause the virus but later research show other sources.
For some scientists, knowing the circumstances that led to the contagion is key to trace the beginnings, especially the way the pandemic began and how to stop another one from happening.
According to Prof. Stephen Turner, head of the Department of Microbiology at Melbourne's Monash University, bats are the origin of the coronavirus. Bats are known to harbor many of these pathogens, and they are more than one. He's quite sure that bats are source but it gets more muddled.
One of accepted reasons is that the virus came about at the market by animal and human transmission, he thinks otherwise.
It is impossible to know what kind of viruses are extant in the animal kingdom since there is no definite way of monitoring it.
Also read : Wuhan Lab Scientists Reportedly Created Coronavirus to Be Lethal to Humans, Russian Scientist Says
An infected tiger in the New York Zoo is a proof that it can jump to vulnerable species. A way must be found to know the most probable species susceptible to infection.
How do things figure on from there and what about the pangolin?
One of the likeliest answers is that the virus is from bats but needed a middle host to gain potency, just like the 2002 SARS outbreak. This time, it's a horseshoe bat to civet cats, and next in line humans to complete the chain.
One of the suspected animals that helped evolved the virus is the pangolin, and it lay between human and bats. This animal is endangered and its scales are prized for medicinal properties.
According to Nature, pangolins are illegally sold in Wuhan despite its endangered status. Chinese authorities turn a blind eye.
Now does pangolins deserve the blame? Turner said,"It's either mixed in something else, mixed in a poor pangolin, or it's jumped into people and evolved in people." He said it was too unclear too.
Another academic Prof. Edward Holmes, of the University of Sydney, one of the leads in the Nature study, had this to say on social media which he stressed that the identity of the species that served as an intermediate host for the virus is "still uncertain."
One other study stated that pangolins did not have a type of amino acids in the virus genome seen in humans.
If the coronavirus did start at the Wuhan Market, then pangolins are off the hook. A more plausible explanation about the origin of coronavirus is needed.
