Also Read | Intelligence on sick staff at Wuhan lab fuels debate on Covid originMore politically charged theories allege the virus accidentally escaped from a nearby research laboratory, or entered China from another country via imported frozen food.
Amid all the posturing, governments and scientists agree that deciphering the creation story is key to reducing the risk of future pandemics.1.
Why don’t we know where it came from?Where, when and how a pathogen begins spreading in humans can be difficult, if not impossible, to pinpoint.
Although SARS-CoV-2 is genetically similar to coronaviruses collected from a type of bat, it may have followed a convoluted path to Wuhan, a city of 11 million people.