COVID-19's mysterious origins - Publication Date |
- Jul 09, 2020
- Episode Duration |
- 00:12:58
You probably think the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic are broadly clear cut.
The virus originated in a live animal and seafood market, in a big central Chinese city called Wuhan, and jumped from bats to humans, possibly via a pangolin, in December 2019.
Early data seemed to support that theory, but research emerging now is calling some details into question.
There's even a preprint of a study from Spain that suggests COVID-19 was present in wastewater there eight months before the first cases were reported in China.
So how is that even possible?
And what other things do we still not know?
Today on The Signal we ask whether piecing together a clearer picture of where COVID-19 came from could help us defeat it.
Featured:
Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, University of New South Wales, Sydney