Consuelo Ramirez

According to worldometers, over 6,615,789 people died from COVID-19 in the past three years. Many people lost their loved ones to a deadly virus that emerged from Wuhan, China. Three years later and people still believe that COVID-19 was a human creation that leaked out of The Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

COVID-19 is a disease that causes fevers, chills, body aches, congestion, difficulty breathing, and loss of taste or smell. People are affected differently by this virus; older people being the group most at risk. 

The Origins of SARS-CoV-2.

SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is a respiratory illness that is caused by COVID-19. According to the journal Pandemic origins, SARS began in 2003 and was first seen in wildlife markets. Bats are the agent of origin, which pass the virus to an intermediate host (animals sold in the market), then infect wildlife market employees who eventually pass it on to others. During this time there were not many cases for the virus to pose a threat. 

When did the Virus begin?

COVID-19 began in December of 2019, spreading slowly in Wuhan China. According to Coronavirus History, this virus is caused by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which is developed from bats. It was not until January 6th that WHO announced the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. The virus spread like wildfire and was declared a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. As months went by, the death toll increased significantly. By the end of 2020 vaccines were approved by the FDA. People all over the world began to get vaccinated and hoped for the best. 

Throughout the whole pandemic people had various opinions as to how the virus originated. Some people believed that the virus was part of the lab-leak theory; while others agreed that it derived from nature. Scientists all over the world began to investigate the true origin of COVID-19.

Where does evidence point regarding the origin of the Virus? 

According to Where did COVID come from?, COVID-19 derived from The Human Market. Human Markets are markets where people sell live livestock and other animals as food. In the first few cases of COVID-19 many of the people who tested positive, worked or have come across these Human Markets. Due to the unsanitary conditions of these markets and the first few people affected, scientists concluded that the virus could have most likely originated from the ‘wet markets.’ 

In the video above, rumors about a lab leak were addressed and the Human Market was explained. Researchers collected samples from animals that were sold in the Wildlife Markets. Although all animals tested negative, the surroundings (stalls, areas of markets) were positive with the COVID-19 pathogen. This connects to the idea that COVID-19’s ground zero was the Wildlife Markets. 

Why was the lab-leak theory a possibility? 

Although the possibility that COIVD-19 originated from The Human Markets was the most probable cause, there were other theories as to how this virus derived and spread. According to nature, the media began to circulate the lab-leak theory. The Wuhan Institute of Virology was blamed for supposedly creating and accidentally releasing the virus. Because China withheld the severity of the virus at the beginning of its upbringing, many people believed they were withholding more information. 

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is a research center located in the city where COVID-19 first broke out. Was it a coincidence that a deadly virus broke out in a city where a top research facility researches them? An article on nature, identified that bats were the confirmed source of the virus, but patient zero had not been found. 

Furthermore, nature explains how researchers found that there were a couple components that led COVID-19 to possibly have been bioengineered. An odd combination of nucleotides suggests that there is a code for arginine. Viruses do not oftentimes contain this code, which indicates the possible tampering of the genome. 

Although there is a possibility in COVID-19 being bioengineered and released, there is a higher chance that it simply evolved and mutated over time. 

Concluding

Many people will say that COVID-19 was released to the public by accident or with the intention to begin a world wide panic. Others will look at the facts and evidence and conclude that it originated through The Human Markets. Evidence points out that this virus derived from nature and not from a lab. Whatever the case may be, it will never bring back all the beautiful souls that were lost due to COVID-19.

Works Cited

Hassanzadeh, Parichehr. “The Significance of Bioengineered Nanoplatforms against SARS-COV-2: From Detection to Genome Editing.” Life Sciences, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 June 2021, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7930743/. Mallapaty, Smriti.

“Where Did Covid Come from? Five Mysteries That Remain.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 26 Feb. 2021, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00502-4. Meter, World.

“Coronavirus Death Toll.” Worldometer, 2019, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll/.