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Dublin Live
Dublin Live
National
Kim oLeary

Covid-19 came from 'single stall' in Wuhan market as study shuts down man-made theory

Studies on the origins of Covid-19 have shut down theories that the virus may have been man-made.

Scientists have singled out the Huanan Seafood Market as the exact place where the pandemic may have began.

The scientists analysed a total of 1,380 samples from the environment and animals within Huanan Seafood Market, with 7.9% of cases testing positive for Covid-19.

And speaking on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk, Trinity Professor Luke O'Neill said that the data shows that there is "no question" that the virus came from the market.

He said: "The Chinese scientists and an international consortium have now dug into all the data.

"The bottom line, as we know, it did come from the market - the Huanan Seafood Market is the source of this, no question now from that."

Professor O'Neill said that this debunks theories that the virus came from a lab, and that it may have come from animals for sale at the market.

He said: "They've tracked it down to a single stall, amazingly, in the market - 156 cases came from that stall.

"Once the thing began in early January, they went in and took loads of swabs; they took thousands and thousands of samples from all over the market. They sampled hundreds of animals as well.

"And from that they're saying it was one specific stall could have been the origin, because so many cases could be tracked to that stall."

Meanwhile, Professor O'Neill also believes that raccoon dogs may have played a part in the spread of the virus.

He said: "They harbour loads and loads of coronaviruses, and that was known before.he bat might have infected the raccoon dog, basically, and then these racoon dogs may have been the source".

It comes as last week, Professor O'Neill said that scientists in Ireland were "closely monitoring" the new BA.2 variant, which is described as a "sibling" of Omicron as they share several similarities.

He added that studies which show that vaccines were "slightly less powerful" against BA.2 shouldn't be cause for major concern.

“It’s kind of a mixed picture. Antibodies seem to be less against BA.2. But the other thing is they’re saying the t-cell part of the immune response seems to be holding up," the Trinity professor said.

“That’s important because there will be more variants down the track. The fact we can still handle BA.2 gives us optimism that whatever variant comes up we should have some immunity against it.”

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