US Researchers: "The First COVID-19 Patient Was a Street Vendor at Wuhan Seafood Market in China"

10 out of 19 confirmed cases linked to angry seafood market
"Live wild animal market is the origin of the pandemic"

Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China.
[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] A study has found that the first confirmed COVID-19 case was a seafood market vendor in the Wuhan area of China. This contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) investigation results, which initially identified an accountant in Wuhan as the first patient, suggesting that the seafood market was the origin of COVID-19.

According to foreign media such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and The New York Times (NYT) on the 18th (local time), Dr. Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, published a paper reconstructing the early pandemic situation of December 2019 in the international journal Science. The study's findings were derived based on genetic data, existing papers, media reports, and interviews with early patients.

The paper shows that among the initial 19 confirmed cases, 10 were either working at, visiting, or in contact with people connected directly or indirectly to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China.

Additionally, Dr. Worobey revealed that the accountant Mr. Chen, previously listed as the "first COVID-19 patient" in the WHO report, did not show symptoms on December 8, 2019, as initially reported, but rather on December 16.

Earlier this year, the WHO investigation team, after visiting the site, judged Mr. Chen to be the first COVID-19 patient based solely on explanations from local hospitals. Because Mr. Chen had neither visited the Huanan market nor had contact with wild animals, WHO had suggested that the market might not be the origin of COVID-19.

However, the new paper confirmed that Mr. Chen underwent a dental surgery to extract a tooth and developed a fever for which he was prescribed antibiotics. In an interview with local media, Mr. Chen testified, "I had a fever and chest pain on December 16. I was short of breath even when speaking."

Dr. Worobey's paper specifies that the first patient was not Mr. Chen but a woman named Wei Guishan, who showed symptoms on December 11.

This woman, a seafood vendor at the Huanan market, previously told WSJ in an interview that her symptoms began on December 10. Foreign media analyzed this as indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic started at the Huanan market and that transmission from infected wild animals to humans was likely.

Dr. Worobey also mentioned that most early patients from the Huanan market had visited the section selling raccoon dogs, stating, "There is strong evidence that live wild animal markets are the origin of the pandemic."

However, other scientists said it is difficult to conclusively state that COVID-19 first started at the Huanan market based solely on this paper. They responded that other possibilities, such as a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, cannot be ruled out.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.