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. 2022 Apr;94(4):1257-1260.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.27519. Epub 2021 Dec 19.

The unresolved question on COVID-19 virus origin: The three cards game?

Alessandra Borsetti  1 , Fabio Scarpa  2 , Antonello Maruotti  3   4 , Fabio Divino  5 , Giancarlo Ceccarelli  6 , Marta Giovanetti  7   8 , Massimo Ciccozzi  9
Affiliations

The unresolved question on COVID-19 virus origin: The three cards game?

Alessandra Borsetti et al. J Med Virol. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

The ongoing discussion about the real origin of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) feeds acrimonious debates. Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from? Was SARS-CoV-2 transmitted in the wild from an animal to a person before exploding in Wuhan or was it an engineered virus that escaped from research or a laboratory in Wuhan? Right now, we still don't know enough whether SARS-CoV-2 is human-made or not, and lab-leak theories remain essentially speculative. Many recent studies have pointed out several plausible scenarios. Anyhow, currently, even if suspicions by some about the possibility of lab-leak hypothesis still remain, the consensus view is that the pandemic probably started from a natural source and, to determine the real origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, further research is needed.

Keywords: SARS coronavirus; coronavirus; epidemiology; pandemics; virus classification.

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References

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