Scientists working on Covid origin notice timeline discrepancies; 1st case was a vendor at Wuhan market

In a recent revelation, a peer-reviewed article published in the journal Science claims that early coronavirus infection during 2019 originated from a market in Wuhan. Dr Michael Worobey, an expert in virus evolution at the University of Arizona has claimed that the first person to contract Covid-19 was a seafood vendor at a Wuhan animal market.

The scientist analysed public accounts of early Covid-19 cases in China and concluded that the WHO inquiry had gotten the early chronology of the pandemic wrong.

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Worobey encountered a few timeline discrepancies in both medical journals and video interviews of the first two documented infections.

After completing his analysis, Worobey put forth his argument stating that the vendor’s ties to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market and the recent analysis of hospitalised patients’ connections to the market indicate that the pandemic originated there.

He has also been open to the theory of a lab leak as he was one among the group of scientists who wrote a letter to Science urging for an investigation to identify the origins of the virus, including a laboratory accident.

Not just Worobey, but various experts, including one of the pandemic investigators chosen said that his work makes sense and the first known case of Covid was most likely a seafood vendor.

However, they further mentioned that the evidence was still not enough.

Another theory by the scientists indicates that the virus infected a “patient zero” before the vendor’s case. Afterwards, it spread widely in the market.

Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was quoted by The New York Times as saying, “I don’t disagree with the analysis."

“But I don’t agree that any of the data are strong enough or complete enough to say anything very confidently, other than that the Huanan Seafood Market was clearly a super-spreading event.”