New Data Links Pandemic’s Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market

The jumbling together of genetic material from the virus and the animal does not prove that a raccoon dog itself was infected. And even if a raccoon dog had been infected, it would not be clear that the animal had spread the virus to people. Another animal could have passed the virus to people, or someone infected with the virus could have spread the virus to a raccoon dog. Dr. Débarre said the research team was seeking more data, including some from market samples that were never made public. “But,” he said, “given that the animals that were present in the market were not sampled at the time, this is as good as we can hope to get.”The post New Data Links Pandemic’s Origins to Raccoon Dogs at Wuhan Market appeared first on New York Times.