False! It took MONTHS to find an intermediate host for both SARS and MERS. SARS1 they found infected civet cats with an almost identical virus within a few mon

False! It took MONTHS to find an intermediate host for both SARS and MERS. SARS1 they found infected civet cats with an almost identical virus within a few months: >”Civet cats, a raccoon dog, and a ferret badger in an animal market in Gunagdong, China, were infected with a coronavirus identical to the one that causes SARS in humans save for an extra 29-nucleotide sequence" which demonstrated that these animals had a very close ancestral virus circulating within their populations. Source: https://zenodo.org/record/3949022#.Y9hn9uzMJqs https://zenodo.org/record/3949022#.Y9hn9uzMJqs. For MERS it took a little longer since by the time they discovered it in dromedary camels only 500 people were infected. But they still found it in less than a year! Source: https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES2013.18.50.20662 https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.E...