New COVID origins data suggests pandemic linked to animals

Dake Kang And Maria Cheng, The Associated Press International scientists who examined previously unavailable genetic data from samples collected at a market close to where the first human cases of COVID-19 were detected in China said they found suggestions the pandemic originated from animals, not a lab. Other experts have not yet verified their analysis, which also has not appeared so far in a peer-reviewed journal. How the coronavirus first started sickening people remains uncertain. "These data do not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important to moving us closer to…