Genetic material collected at a Chinese market near where the first human cases of COVID-19 were identified show raccoon dog DNA commingled with the virus, suggesting the pandemic may have originated from animals, not a lab, according to a group of international scientists.
Other experts have not yet verified their analysis, which has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal. How the coronavirus began sickening people remains uncertain. The sequences will have to be matched to the genetic record of how the virus evolved, to see which came first.
“These data do not provide a definitive answer to how the pandemic began,
