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Can Science Help Resolve the Controversy on the Origins of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic?
Casadevall, Arturo; Weiss, Susan R; Imperiale, Michael J.
  • Casadevall A; Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
  • Weiss SR; Department of Microbiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvaniagrid.25879.31, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
  • Imperiale MJ; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
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.
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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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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