Scientist Traces First Case Of COVID-19 Back To Wuhan Market

A scientist who investigated public accounts of early COVID-19 cases in China published a report on Thursday saying that a vendor at an animal market in Wuhan was likely the first person to contract the virus. 

Dr. Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, has examined the origins and escalation of widespread global diseases such as the 1918 pandemic flu and HIV. He wrote that academics “can no longer just dismiss the Huanan market link,” concluding that “the western section where raccoon dogs were caged provides strong evidence of a live-animal market origin of the pandemic.” Worobey's research adds to the theory that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a bat, which follows the pattern of other new diseases that virologists have traced to “spillovers” from animals to humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) previously reported that the first person thought to have contracted COVID-19 was a male accountant in Wuhan who had no link to the market.

The report was prominently covered across the spectrum. Right-rated outlets were more likely to highlight voices that support the Wuhan lab leak theory and criticize Worobey's research for not including data that goes back to Nov. 2019 or earlier. Left-rated outlets were more likely to accentuate voices that said a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.”