4 ms·

There are many animal hosts or reservoirs. The issue is that it's not obvious wether they got it from or gave it to humans. You really need the most direct ance

There are many animal hosts or reservoirs. The issue is that it's not obvious wether they got it from or gave it to humans. You really need the most direct ancestor virus.

johncena33 5y ago
AFAIK the known animal reservoirs got it from humans. Do you know any animal reservoir that we still don't know how the animals have got it?
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  We don't, and that's the issue, we can't know unless we find an ancestor virus. It's also very possible if could have wiped out the original virus in all original reservoirs. It's very difficult to do this now and for endemic viruses in general, and it took a very very long time to do for SARS where this wasn't a problem.
  - neom 5y ago
    I thought they thought it might be pangolins? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32380510/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32380510/
    - sudosysgen 5y ago
      Yeah, that's a theory, but I don't think it's settled yet
    - lamontcg 5y ago
      That is a very old article in pandemic research time. Pagolins aren't thought to be the likely intermediate animal any more.
awb 5y ago
A quick reminder of what scientists said in early 2020: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/28/how-did-the-coronavirus-start-where-did-it-come-from-how-did-it-spread-humans-was-it-really-bats-pangolins-wuhan-animal-market https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/28/how-did-the-co... > “we really don’t know” how accurate the origin story is, she says: “There’s some sort of connection [to the Wuhan market] and there were people exposed to the market that were infected.” > Baker says what is “very likely” is that the virus originated in a bat. “It’s a likely scenario but we will never know. The market was cleaned up quite quickly. We can only speculate.” > “These wet markets have been identified as an issue because you do have species interacting,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to highlight the dangers of them and an opportunity to clamp down on them.” > Turner adds: “We’ve found the ancestors of the virus, but having broader knowledge of the coronavirus in other species might give us a hint about the evolution of this thing and how it jumped.” There has been other wet market origin stories as well, so I think absent other evidence it seemed like the Occam’s razor answer.

There are many animal hosts or reservoirs. The issue is that it's not obvious wether they got it from or gave it to humans. You really need the most direct ancestor virus.

johncena33 5y ago

AFAIK the known animal reservoirs got it from humans. Do you know any animal reservoir that we still don't know how the animals have got it?

sudosysgen 5y ago
We don't, and that's the issue, we can't know unless we find an ancestor virus. It's also very possible if could have wiped out the original virus in all original reservoirs. It's very difficult to do this now and for endemic viruses in general, and it took a very very long time to do for SARS where this wasn't a problem.
- neom 5y ago
  I thought they thought it might be pangolins? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32380510/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32380510/
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    Yeah, that's a theory, but I don't think it's settled yet
  - lamontcg 5y ago
    That is a very old article in pandemic research time. Pagolins aren't thought to be the likely intermediate animal any more.

awb 5y ago

A quick reminder of what scientists said in early 2020: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/28/how-did-the-coronavirus-start-where-did-it-come-from-how-did-it-spread-humans-was-it-really-bats-pangolins-wuhan-animal-market https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/28/how-did-the-co... > “we really don’t know” how accurate the origin story is, she says: “There’s some sort of connection [to the Wuhan market] and there were people exposed to the market that were infected.” > Baker says what is “very likely” is that the virus originated in a bat. “It’s a likely scenario but we will never know. The market was cleaned up quite quickly. We can only speculate.” > “These wet markets have been identified as an issue because you do have species interacting,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to highlight the dangers of them and an opportunity to clamp down on them.” > Turner adds: “We’ve found the ancestors of the virus, but having broader knowledge of the coronavirus in other species might give us a hint about the evolution of this thing and how it jumped.” There has been other wet market origin stories as well, so I think absent other evidence it seemed like the Occam’s razor answer.