The French news agency AFP and the American AP were able to do it unofficially draft report already look in. The conclusion is not a big surprise: it has already been assumed that the source would be at the bat.
The question was whether humans had gotten it directly from the bat or not. The researchers leave that possibility open, but they think it more likely that a second animal, such as mink, pangolin or cat, was among them. In these animals, types of the coronavirus have been found that are very similar to the latest coronavirus that appeared in humans.
The scientists come to the following conclusions:
- “likely to very likely”: from the bat through one intermediate host to man. It has not yet been decided exactly which intermediate host this was, but we are looking in the direction of pangolin, mink or cat.
- “probably”: from bat directly to humans. Yet the researchers write that there is in principle a link missing for this, because the coronaviruses that live in bats are evolutionarily “several decades” away from the new coronavirus.
- it is not certain that the new coronavirus on the market of Huanan originated in Wuhan: it may also have come from outside the market. “We cannot draw a firm conclusion about the role of the market.”
- China has always defended the hypothesis that the virus may have entered the country via frozen food. In theory, this is possible – it has also been demonstrated in some cases since the COVID-19 outbreak. But the report says it would be “extraordinary” had it happened that way in 2019, because the virus was not circulating on a large scale at that time.
- the report is the strongest on the hypothesis often launched by former US President Donald Trump: that the virus was Chinees lab would have escaped. But the researchers dismiss that train of thought as “extremely unlikely”.
The final version of the report is expected one of the following days, but experts believe that not much will change for the official version.
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