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Comment by Edward C. Holmes

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Evolutionary virologist, University of Sydney
What you find is there's a very, very strong clustering around the market. Not just the people who worked at, or visited, the market, but all those early cases, even with no link to the market, they all cluster around that market. That's the epicentre, that's where the virus definitely started spreading.
AI Verified (Aug 13, 2022)
Source:
Edward C. Holmes, quoted by Samantha Hawley and Flint Duxfield, ABC News, August 13, 2022.
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Policy proposals and claims
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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Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote is directly on the statement’s core issue: Holmes says early cases, including those with no known market link, still cluster around the Huanan market and concludes it was the outbreak’s "epicentre" and where the virus "started spreading." In source context, that makes a determinate stance on whether the clustering reflects true emergence rather than merely where investigators looked substantially more likely. ([abc.net.au](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-13/profile-professor-eddie-holmes-virus-hunter-covid-19/101324738)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3h ago
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AI Verified Holmes is clearly for: he says even early cases "with no link to the market" still "cluster around that market" and concludes "That's the epicentre, that's where the virus definitely started spreading." In the article’s surrounding context, this mapping is presented as what left him "certain the virus originated" there, so the clustering is treated as evidence of emergence, not merely of where investigators looked. ([abc.net.au](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-13/profile-professor-eddie-holmes-virus-hunter-covid-19/101324738)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago

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AI Verified Verified. The ABC News article at the supplied URL, posted on 2022-08-13, contains these exact three consecutive quoted sentences at lines 222-225 and attributes them to Professor Holmes; the submitter has only merged them into one paragraph. University of Sydney sources identify him as Professor Edward C. Holmes / Eddie Holmes, so the attribution to Edward C. Holmes is correct. ([abc.net.au](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-13/profile-professor-eddie-holmes-virus-hunter-covid-19/101324738)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3h ago
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