Bat scientists warn the world may never know the origins of Covid-19



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Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists around the world have struggled to pinpoint the origin of the coronavirus that caused it.

Linfa Wang knows they might never be successful.

Dr Wang, professor in the Emerging Infectious Diseases program at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, is an expert on bat viruses. He has joined the hunt for the origin of Covid-19 even though he and his scientific colleagues are still researching the precise source of another coronavirus: the one that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. This virus appeared in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people around the world.

Research into the origin of SARS and other deadly viruses provides a shining example of the many challenges that make it difficult to find the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

SARS started as an epidemic in China, quickly traveled the world, infecting and killing people, and disrupting the global economy. The Chinese government has come under fire at home and abroad for not sharing information quickly enough with the public and with World Health Organization officials trying to bring the disease under control.

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