Wet Market

Most early cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan center around the local wet market, where foxes, raccoon dogs, and other live mammals susceptible to the virus were sold live immediately before the pandemic began.

Chinese government officials have been found to have repeatedly made false statements regarding COVID-19. Therefore, there is no compelling reason to believe official data on the distribution of early cases.

For zoonotic viruses, there is usually an intermediate animal host between the reservoir species and humans. This potential vector at the market has not been found for COVID-19.

During the early stage of the pandemic, the doctors in Wuhan had to means to accurately test patients with COVID-like symptoms, so they used patients’ addresses to determine the diagnosis. Patients residing close to the wet market, which was a known infection cluster, were diagnosed with COVID, while patients with similar symptoms from other areas were given other diagnoses. This inevitably inflated the share of COVID patients residing close to the market.

The outbreak being centered in the wet market is not inconsistent with the laboratory leak. Two out of five large outbreaks in China in 2020, as well as outbreaks in Thailand and Singapore, started in markets.