Questions remain about the origins of the coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) working draft report leaked to the Associated Press, transmission most likely occurred from animals to humans.
However, others are not so convinced, insisting the deadly virus was intentionally released from a laboratory to wreak havoc on the world.
News 8 spoke with Dr. Ana Bento, professor at IU School of Public Health who explained why the spread from animals to humans is the most likely scenario.
“These results are not surprising at least from the academic and scientific community. There has been a lot of research being done on the origins of SARS-CoV-2. From the beginning–through genetic surveillance, genomic surveillance and case surveillance–there has been this hypothesis that the virus could have potentially come from bats or pangolins. So, the absolute origin has not been absolutely established as to which animal was the original reservoir. However, the viruses that are encountered in those species are closely related enough to COVID-19 that the estimation seems that it originated in these wild animals.”
