this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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A team of scientists say it is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak.

They were analysing hundreds of samples collected from Wuhan, China, in January 2020.

The results identify a shortlist of animals – including racoon dogs, civets and bamboo rats – as potential sources of the pandemic.

Despite even highlighting one market stall as a hotspot of both animals and coronavirus, the study cannot provide definitive proof.

The samples were collected by Chinese officials in the early stages of Covid and are one of the most scientifically valuable sources of information on the origins of the pandemic.

...

Their analysis was published last year and the raw data made available to other scientists. Now a team in the US and France says they have performed even more advanced genetic analyses to peer deeper into Covid's early days.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

As someone currently down with covid I thought that was state of knowledge long time ago.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

including racoon dogs, civets and bamboo rats

No Bats? Oh maaaaaan

>

[–] [email protected] -5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wuhan market didn't sell bats.

Also, the only bats with a (96%) similar covid strain were in caves 1000 miles away.

However, samples from those bats were stored at the wuhan institute of virology.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Very first sentence quoted above. You don't even have to go to the article:

A team of scientists say it is “beyond reasonable doubt” the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak.

No amount of evidence or scientific consensus can convince a conspiracy theorist...

And yes, I know:

Despite even highlighting one market stall as a hotspot of both animals and coronavirus, the study cannot provide definitive proof.

Therefore lab leak, right?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

The samples were collected by Chinese officials in the early stages of Covid and are one of the most scientifically valuable sources of information on the origins of the pandemic.

This Part makes me question things a bit. China is not really known for being honest about things happening in China.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The study itself is quite balanced and honest about data collection. It doesn't rule out a lab origin like the article claims.

our study does not rule out human-to-animal transmission, as the sampling was carried out after the human infection within the market. Thus, the possibility of potential introduction of the virus to the market through infected humans, or cold-chain products, cannot yet be ruled out.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Questioning things is fine. On the other hand, it's pretty hard to fake the ability to trace DNA to a specific market stall.

On top of that, the person I replied to is not questioning. They've already decided it's definitely a lab leak. See all of their other comments.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Ahhh okay, nvm then

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Off topic, but “Genetic Ghosts” would be a sweet band name. I’d go see them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought the same. What kind of music do you reckon they'd play?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Danny Phantom caused Covid?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Wasn't this known already? Weren't there all kinds of discussions about shutting down wet markets because of this?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

There's a bunch of indications / conspiracy theories that it might have been a lab leak. Basically there's not really a way to know unless the Chinese government starts being more forthcoming with information.

The main reason the conspiracy theory started is because the city where it started had a world renowned virus research facility in it.

Of course, the reason the facility is there in the first place is because Wuhan province is a place where a lot of viruses originate naturally (in bat colonies), so it makes sense you research the viruses close to their natural reservoir.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

Wuhan province is a place where a lot of viruses originate naturally (in bat colonies)

This is disingenuous. RaTG13 was sourced in Tongguan in Mojiang Hani Autonomous County 1800km from Wuhan.

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wasn't this disproven already? Covid has been detected in human waste matter samples from Autumn 2019 in Italy.

Overall, the results of this blind retesting of a selected set of samples indicate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in some SMILE samples collected in the prepandemic period. The oldest samples found positive for IgM by both laboratories were collected on 10 October 2019 (Lombardy), 11 November 2019 (Lombardy) and 5 February 2020 (Lazio), the latter with neutralizing antibodies. Two additional samples collected on 17 December 2019 (Campania) and 28 January 2020 (Lombardy) tested as IgG positive by VisMederi and positive for IgG S1 and IgG S1+NP by Erasmus. Additional IgM positive cases could have been detected also by Erasmus by lowering the cut-off of the commercial IgM assay. The older among these putative additional IgM positive samples was collected on 3 September 2019 in the Veneto region, one of the first and mostly severely affected COVID-19 regions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8778320/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I don't really understand what this is actually saying?

Surely, if this were saying "covid started in italy" or "covid was around in 2019" that would rate more song and dance than a single obscure research paper?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

These findings do not at all suggest that the virus originated in Italy, but they endorse the idea that the virus was likely spreading in China before the first known cases and that could have been circulated by travelers given direct the connections between China and European and US countries, particularly the Northern West and East Italian regions, which are among the most industrialized and connected areas of Italy.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah but the US media was too busy implying that China manufactured the virus in a bio lab.

Funnily enough China still suffered because it failed to lock down early enough because the government tried to ignore and detain doctors in an effort to control the narrative that everything would be fine.

The US suffered because they nuked their Pandemic emergency pla only like a few years before covid because Trump thought Spanish Fever wouldn't reincarnate to finish the job on its 100th anniversary lol.

So it was easy to vaguely point at China instead of actually solving the problem.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't know what US media you were consuming in 2020/21, but it was pretty much understood it came from something exotic in a wet market.

Most of us didn't know what a wet market existed or what it was until COVID. There was some conspiracy shit that the right ate up, and some editorial and opinions on the idea, but the whole bioengineered super virus escaping a lab wasn't taken that seriously

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Eating animals causes pandemics from zoonotic diseases. More at 11.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Being near live animals is more dangerous.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

You don't even need to eat them; just being in close proximity to them and interacting with them is enough.

On the other hands, cows, chickens, and humans came together to create a smallpox vaccine, so there's that at least.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, it’s just that eating animals has a distinct history of causing horrible pandemics in humans. See e.g. the 1918 H1N1 pandemic which killed tens of millions and was likely started by hogs or chickens farmed in rural Kansas, swine flu which killed hundreds of thousands and whose name speaks for itself, and COVID-19 which killed millions and is well-understood to have originated in a wet market.

Besides all the other reasons that it's terrible, animal agriculture is a hotbed for transmitting zoonotic diseases to humans and combining existing human diseases with animal ones.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

And god forbid you should fuck them.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

I know this is off topic, but - why didn't anyone tell me there's a species called a raccoon dog?!

https://a-z-animals.com/blog/what-are-raccoon-dogs/

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

You were told. You just didn’t listen.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Look up some of the Japanese lore about Tanuki (the Japanese name for the raccoon dog). It involves magic, giant scrotums, and all sorts of delightful stuff.

If you like anime, Studio Ghibli (famous for a lot of classics including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and others) did a movie called Pom Poko, which is about tanuki. If you don't care for subtitles, the English dub is pretty good, and the voice cast stars a lot of well known (for the time) American actors.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I will always upvote a Ghibli recommendation!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You might know of the tanuki, which is specifically the Japanese raccoon dog.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I didn't know about that one either!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If you’ve ever played Super Mario Bros 3 (or other Mario games where this same suit is found) there’s a Tanooki suit, which is the one that lets you fly!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The raccoon tail lets you fly. The Tanooki suit lets you turn into a statue, but also happens to have a raccoon tail so it also lets you fly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Ahh yes, the opposite of flying. Thanks for the correction!

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