Kathmandu. The corona epidemic, which devastated the world five years ago, has once again started appearing. Along with neighboring countries India and China, cases of corona infection have started increasing suddenly in Pakistan, Thailand and Singapore.
In the midst of this new wave of corona, an important research has come out. The research seeks to counter claims that the coronavirus originated in China’s Wuhan laboratory and spread to animals and then to humans around the world due to accidents.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have found in their study that the coronavirus was not created in the Wuhan laboratory. “Instead, the virus evolved naturally in bat populations in Southeast Asia and then spread to human populations,” the report said. Which has also been supported by US President Donald Trump.
What does the new research say?
A study from the University of Edinburgh has found strong genetic evidence against lab leak theory of the origin of the coronavirus. In the research, experts from 20 institutions in the US, Europe and Asia analyzed the genomes of 167 bat coronaviruses. It revealed that the virus closest to SARS-CoV-2 was in bats in northern Laos and China’s Yunnan province.
SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes coronavirus. It occurred five to seven years before the first case of corona infection was reported in late 2019.
Research author Jonathan Peker said the data clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 originated in bats thousands of kilometers away from Wuhan. It is more than 2,700 kilometers away from Wuhan.
Scientists believe that the coronavirus has reached the human population through the movement of infected animals through illegal trade networks. Since then, it caused great damage to the human population.
“This pattern is not new,” said Michael Vorobe, a biologist at the University of Arizona, adding that the SARS-CoV-2 virus also originated far from bats through palm civets and raccoon dogs. This pattern was repeated in SARS-CoV-2. It was not a natural migration but played an important role in spreading the virus through wildlife in densely populated areas. – Agency
