Can Science Help Resolve the Controversy on the Origins of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic?
mBio
; 12(4): e0194821, 2021 08 31.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1337436
ABSTRACT
The origins of the calamitous SARS-CoV-2 pandemic are now the subject of vigorous discussion and debate between two competing hypotheses for how it entered the human population (i) direct infection from a feral source, likely a bat and possibly with an intermediate mammalian host, and (ii) a lab accident whereby bat isolates infected a researcher, who then passed it to others. Here, we ask whether the tools of science can help resolve the origins question and conclude that while such studies can provide important information, these are unlikely to provide a definitive answer. Currently available data combined with historical precedent from other outbreaks and viewed through the prism of Occam's razor favor the feral source hypothesis, but science can provide only probabilities, not certainty.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Zoonoses
/
Public Health Surveillance
/
COVID-19
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
MBio
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
MBio.01948-21
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