Opinion: Four things I want to know about the origin of COVID

Opinion: Four things I want to know about the origin of COVID

Andrew Noymer, associate professor of public health, epidemiologist, and medical demographer at the University of California, Irvine, writes: “A recent article in the academic journal Science has attracted attention for its detailed modeling of the initial post-emergence of the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, COVID-19. The authors of this study have touted it as ending the debate about the origins of the novel coronavirus, favoring a zoonosis, or a jump from an animal host to humans without any steps in between. As important as it is to understand the early dynamics of COVID in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus did not spontaneously generate itself in market stalls in Wuhan, nor does the Science article suggest otherwise.”