An article published today by the ABC reveals the dilemma faced by scientists attempting to discover the source of this virus.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/...-cov-2--science-gene-cluster-control/12229292
Take outs:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/...-cov-2--science-gene-cluster-control/12229292
Take outs:
- The Pangolin is unlikely to be the source or intermediate host.
- New research from China has found pangolins, including two groups of sick Malayan pangolins, are natural hosts of coronaviruses, including some related to SARS-CoV-2. But the researchers say the scaly anteaters are unlikely the direct source of the coronavirus outbreak in humans.
- The evidence suggests strongly that no intermediate host was involved.
- "What we can say is that the evidence very, very strongly points to a single jump from a non-human reservoir into the human population."
- The often referred to Bat genetic sample that implicates them was taken in the 1900's and does not pass directly to humans.
- "We know that the closest relative of this virus that we have from samples is bats, but we date the closest ancestor that we have which was sampled from a bat to be anywhere in the 1900s." But if it did come from bats, how did it pass into humans?
- All findings are yet to be subject to peer review.