Where does Sars-CoV-2 come from? The origins of the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic remain unclear. After the thesis of the pangolin, that of the Wuhan market or even, more crazy, that of a laboratory production, the world invites us, in a well-documented investigation, to look at the history of Chinese miners.
What we know first. The pathogen belongs to the coronavirus family. It is close to a virus that found in bats in Asia. Its human version likely emerged in the Wuhan region of China around November 2019.
The pangolin, too distant
It is the path between the bat and the man that remains to be elucidated. To try to put the pieces back together, scientists are comparing the genetic code of Sars-CoV-2 to those of other known coronaviruses. This is how the pangolin was suspected for a time. But this hypothesis fell through, explained the virologist Etienne Decroly in the CNRS journal last October
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