In June, the World Health Organization recommended that scientists continue to research all possible origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, including a lab leak. Two newly published studies take totally different approaches but arrive at the same conclusion: The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, was most likely the epicenter for the coronavirus.
The studies were posted online as preprints in February but have now undergone peer review and were published Tuesday in the journal Science.
In one, scientists from around the world used mapping tools and social media reports to do a spatial and environmental analysis. They suggest that although the “exact circumstances remain obscure,” the virus was probably present in live animals sold at the market in late 2019. The animals were held close together and could easily have exchanged germs. However, the study does not determine which animals may have been sick.
