W.H.O. Investigator: Wuhan Market Sold Wildlife from Areas Infested by Virus-Carrying Bats

Nairobi-based Vietnamese biologist Hung Nguyen-Viet, a food safety expert who was among the ten scientists sent by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) to visit Wuhan, China, in late January, said Monday that he fears wildlife products sold at the now-infamous Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan might have come from areas with large populations of virus-carrying bats, possibly spreading the coronavirus from animals to humans through an intermediate species. This was the scenario classified as the most likely origin of the pandemic in W.H.O.’s report on the Wuhan mission, released last week to considerable skepticism from scientists who said Chinese officials withheld too much vital data from the international team. Skeptics also noted there was a remarkable lack of evidence for the animal-transmission theory, even though W.H.O. concluded it was the most probable scenario.-- More...

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