Comment by Maria Cheng

Scientists searching for the origins of Covid-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they hope could allow them to trace the outbreak back to its source. Researchers analyzed genetic material gathered from the Chinese market where the first outbreak was detected and found that the most likely animals were racoon dogs, civet cats and bamboo rats. The scientists suspect infected animals were first brought to the Wuhan market in late November 2019, which then triggered the pandemic. [...] While the research bolsters the case that Covid-19 emerged from animals, it does not resolve the polarized and political debate over whether the virus instead emerged from a research lab in China.