COVID CORNER

COVID’S CONTESTED ORIGIN

rom the start of the pandemic there have been rumours about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (also known as SARS2) that causes Covid-19, suggesting that it was the result of an accidental release from a research lab and that it was a virus engineered by scientists. Swiftly picked up by conspiracy theorists, they were just as swiftly debunked by Western scientists, with letters by groups of leading virologists appearing in and . While suspicion was aroused by the presence of China’s leading coronavirus research lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in the virus’s presumed city of origin, there seemed to be absolutely no evidence that it had anything to do with the infections and it was deemed more likely that the city’s wet market was the source of the outbreak. The first people whose infections were initially reported were all associated with the market, and China’s wet markets have form).