zlacker

>>datafl+(OP)
Something which hasn't been able to be answered for me on this yet:

Where are all the bats infected with this virus? It it came from a bat, it would have had to be circulating in the bat population a LOT to mutate enough to jump to humans, right?

So...why not go find a bad, identify the parent virus, and close this whole thing out?

>>thepas+Ig
For SARS (2003) It took 3 years to find the intermediate host (civets). And 14 years (2017) to find the bat parent of the virus[1].

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndr...

Guess who found the bat host? Shi Zhengli of the very WIV in question.

>>bigpum+8i
That's a bit confusing because the OP makes an opposite point: "The intermediary host species of SARS1 was identified within four months of the epidemic’s outbreak, and the host of MERS within nine months."

>>guesst+pj
In 2003 it was merely suspected that covers were the intermediate. It wasn't confirmed until 2006. Read further down:

"In late 2006, scientists from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of Hong Kong University and the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention established a genetic link between the SARS coronavirus appearing in civets and humans, bearing out claims that the disease had jumped across species.[62]"

It goes on to state that the bat link was confirmed in 2017.

>>zumina+bo
It's pretty unclear exactly what was proved in 2003 and in 2006. But the point remains: for COVID19, after a year of searching we don't even have a suspect animal host.