Bat Virus Evolution Suggests COVID-19 Virus Emerged Naturally, Spreading To Humans Through Wildlife Trade

Researchers behind a new study have concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic was sparked by wildlife trade in China, similar to the circumstances that led to the SARS outbreak in 2002. The results undermine the widely circulated (and much contested) view that the virus was manufactured in a lab. The analysis shows that the ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, originated in Western China or Northern Laos and then left there several years before the disease appeared in humans in central China. This means that the virus traveled up to 2,700 kilometers (1,678 miles) in a pretty short time…