Raccoon dogs are small vulpine animals native to East Asia.

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Newly released genetic data from Wuhan has found raccoon dog DNA blended with the COVID-19 virus.
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus slammed China for not sharing the data earlier. 
Since the first COVID-19 death in Wuhan on January 11, 2020, the virus has killed 6,873,477 people worldwide.

Newly released genetic data from the wet market near where scientists discovered the first human cases of COVID-19 has shown raccoon-dog DNA blended with the virus.

According to The Atlantic, one of the first outlets to report the findings, the data from the end of 2019 — when the first COVID-19 cases started to emerge — show that some of the COVID-positive samples collected from a stall known to be involved in the wildlife trade also contained raccoon dog genes. 

This suggests that the virus may have infected the animals, according to the scientists.

The data has not been formally reviewed nor has it been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, has said the data does not provide “a definitive answer to how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important to moving us closer to that answer.” 

A 61-year-old man was the first person in China to die from what we now know as COVID-19.

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However, international health experts have said that this finding adds credence to the theory that the COVID-19 virus came from animals instead of a lab leak.

The Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which also offered exotic game and wild animals for sale, has been at the center of scientific suspicion as the original source of COVID-19.

The Chinese team collected environmental samples from the Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, according …read more

Source:: Businessinsider