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Comment by Davey Smith

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UCSD infectious-disease physician
Like all known human coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 originated from animals, most likely through wildlife sold at the Huanan Seafood Market, with bats serving as the deeper evolutionary reservoir. Since its emergence in humans, SARS-CoV-2 has repeatedly crossed into non-human hosts. Over five years of widespread circulation, the virus has been detected in a surprising array of animals, including white-tailed deer, mink, rats, hamsters, horses, cats, zoo animals and dogs, though sustained transmission is clearly documented only in deer and farmed mink, with other species showing limited or no onward spread.
AI Verified source (Mar 3, 2026)
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The clustering of early cases around the Huanan market reflects where the COVID-19 virus emerged, not just where testing looked
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AI Verified The quote is relevant because the source article explicitly says SARS-CoV-2 "originated from animals, most likely through wildlife sold at the Huanan Seafood Market," which strongly signals the author views the market as the emergence site rather than merely a place where cases were detected. Although it does not mention testing bias or case clustering in those exact words, its ordinary meaning makes support for the complete statement substantially more likely than the alternatives. ([journals.plos.org](https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1014008)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago
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AI Verified The author is supportive: he writes that SARS-CoV-2 "originated from animals, most likely through wildlife sold at the Huanan Seafood Market," which strongly implies the Huanan-centered pattern reflects the emergence location, not merely where testing was concentrated. The limitation is that the quote does not explicitly discuss ascertainment/testing bias. ([journals.plos.org](https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1014008&utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago

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AI Verified Verified: the PLOS Pathogens article "Will animal reservoirs give us the next SARS-CoV-2 variant?" lists Davey Smith as the author, shows Published: March 3, 2026, and contains these three sentences verbatim at the start of section 1, aside from the bracketed citation marker after the first sentence. ([journals.plos.org](https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1014008)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 1h ago
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