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Comment by Mark Woolhouse

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University of Edinburgh infectious-disease professor
It’s a significant finding and this does shift the dial more in favor of an animal origin, [...] But it is not conclusive.
AI Verified (Sep 19, 2024)
Source:
Mark Woolhouse, quoted by Maria Cheng, "A new genetic analysis of animals in the Wuhan market in 2019 may help find COVID-19's origin," Associated Press, September 2024.
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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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AI Verified Relevant: in the AP source context, Woolhouse says the analysis suggests the pandemic’s roots were in the market and that pre-identification circulation outside the market was very unlikely. That makes his remark that the finding shifts the evidence toward animal origin a determinable signal on whether the early market clustering reflects true emergence rather than just testing focus, even though he adds that it is not conclusive. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/covid-origins-racoon-dog-lab-leak-05d573cfd019a20cb46d675af0c669dd)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago
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AI Verified He says the analysis suggests the pandemic "had its evolutionary roots in the market" and that it was "very unlikely" COVID-19 was infecting people before it was identified there, which implies the early market-centered clustering reflects real emergence/origin evidence rather than just where testing focused; his caveat is that it is "not conclusive." ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/covid-origins-racoon-dog-lab-leak-05d573cfd019a20cb46d675af0c669dd)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago

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AI Verified The AP News article by Maria Cheng dated 2024-09-19 contains the quote in two consecutive attributed sentences spoken by Mark Woolhouse. The submitter’s [...] validly omits AP’s attribution clause between them, and the provided AP URL does contain the quote. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/covid-origins-racoon-dog-lab-leak-05d573cfd019a20cb46d675af0c669dd)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2h ago
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