My Take | Chinese wet market theory for pandemic holds after all
A re-analysis of genomic data previously withheld offers strongest evidence of the natural origin of Covid-19 but doubters, conspiracists and some Western politicians are unlikely to be convinced
Science works with probabilities. That’s the main reason why the precise origin of the Covid-19 pandemic may never be definitively settled. Unlike mathematics, empirical science can never provide proof, only that a cause is more or less likely. That, of course, provides plenty of room for doubters, conspiracists and ideologues to cast suspicion and confusion on the likely wet market origin theory and promote the fringe one of a lab leak in Wuhan.
The whole controversy about the origins of the virus has been mired in international politics and the US-led Western rivalry with China. Science, unfortunately, has often been forced to take a back seat against the loud noises from Washington and sometimes the megaphone diplomacy of ally Canberra. They constantly demand more proof, more data, more evidence, more transparency … when actual data and evidence preponderantly go against the “lab leak” theory they favour.
A team of American and European scientists – none of them from China – has worked through the most massive data taken from the Wuhan wet market and published their findings in peer-reviewed Cell, one of the very top journals in the biological sciences.
The data was previously released and analysed but without the latest expertise and thoroughness.
