RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Waiting for the truth: is reluctance in accepting an early origin hypothesis for SARS-CoV-2 delaying our understanding of viral emergence?
JF BMJ Global Health
JO BMJ Global Health
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e008386
DO 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-008386
VO 7
IS 3
A1 Marta Canuti
A1 Silvia Bianchi
A1 Otto Kolbl
A1 Sergei L Kosakovsky Pond
A1 Sudhir Kumar
A1 Maria Gori
A1 Clara Fappani
A1 Daniela Colzani
A1 Elisa Borghi
A1 Gianvincenzo Zuccotti
A1 Mario C Raviglione
A1 Elisabetta Tanzi
A1 Antonella Amendola
YR 2022
UL http://gh.bmj.com/content/7/3/e008386.abstract
AB Two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, key questions about the emergence of its aetiological agent (SARS-CoV-2) remain a matter of considerable debate. Identifying when SARS-CoV-2 began spreading among people is one of those questions. Although the current canonically accepted timeline hypothesises viral emergence in Wuhan, China, in November or December 2019, a growing body of diverse studies provides evidence that the virus may have been spreading worldwide weeks, or even months, prior to that time. However, the hypothesis of earlier SARS-CoV-2 circulation is often dismissed with prejudicial scepticism and experimental studies pointing to early origins are frequently and speculatively attributed to false-positive tests. In this paper, we critically review current evidence that SARS-CoV-2 had been circulating prior to December of 2019, and emphasise how, despite some scientific limitations, this hypothesis should no longer be ignored and considered sufficient to warrant further larger-scale studies to determine its veracity.There are no data in this work.