‘It’s Far More Than Just Science’: Unraveling the Hunt for Covid’s Origins – Podcast | News

One of the most compelling clues to the origins of a once-in-a-century pandemic was uploaded to a scientific database without notice — unnoticed for weeks. And then, just as suddenly, it disappeared from public view.

Genetic data from swabs taken in the weeks after Covid-19 first appeared at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, was only available online for a few weeks: just long enough for a Parisian scientist at the Work stumbled across her couch on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month.

Florence Debarre told Michael Safi how she came to understand the meaning of the data – and how it supports the theory that the most compelling case for Covid’s first leap from animals to humans is that it happened in the marketplace.

As the guard Ian Probe explained, the market theory of Covid has long been the preferred explanation of scientists. But recently US government agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Energy have issued statements arguing for the theory that Covid may have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. Joe Biden has ordered the release of relevant evidence that may support this theory – one originally and still endorsed by Donald Trump.

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