Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and helping encourage anti-vax attitudes of distrust and conspiracy leading to COVID-19 becoming endemic and now a forever part of our lives, there was a gang of people insisting the disease was "likely" leaked from a lab. People like Nate Silver of 538 fame endlessly speculated about lab leaks, usually based on some 'reports they read' that everyone from Bill Gates to Aliens had leaked this disease with nefarious intent.
A study shows the disease came from the market we were first told it had.
Understanding how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in 2019 is critical to preventing zoonotic outbreaks before they become the next pandemic. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, was identified as a likely source of cases in early reports but later this conclusion became controversial. We show the earliest known COVID-19 cases from December 2019, including those without reported direct links, were geographically centered on this market. We report that live SARS-CoV-2 susceptible mammals were sold at the market in late 2019 and, within the market, SARS-CoV-2-positive environmental samples were spatially associated with vendors selling live mammals. While there is insufficient evidence to define upstream events, and exact circumstances remain obscure, our analyses indicate that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 occurred via the live wildlife trade in China, and show that the Huanan market was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
