There is now “pretty convincing” evidence that COVID-19 originated from a market in Wuhan, Professor Luke O’Neill has said.

Although COVID-19 was first detected in the Chinese city nearly five years ago, there is still no definitive cause for the outbreak. 

For years, scientists have debated whether the cause was Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market where live animals were sold or whether another cause such as a lab leak was responsible.

Research published last week in the journal Cell has concluded an outbreak from the market is the most likely culprit. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, Trinity Professor Luke O’Neill said the report found the virus in the samples dates back to the beginning of the pandemic.

“It’s the same age as the virus that infected humans,” he said. 

“They can age viruses and the reason for that is a virus will mutate every time it divides at a certain rate; the older it is, the less mutations there are. 

“So, the mutation rate is the age of the virus. 

“Low and behold, the samples are the same age of the virus that was first detected in humans that were infected from that market.” 

A COVID test centre. Photograph: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

Crucially as well, samples from animals showed they had been infected with COVID.

“In 2020, loads of swabs were taken off all the surfaces in the west part of the market - it began in the west part of the Huanan Seafood Market,” Professor O'Neill said. 

“Loads of swabs – drains were sampled, surfaces of all kinds were sampled and they measured the DNA of these exotic animals in those swabs.

“They found DNA for all these exotic animals that were known to be on sale there - the raccoon dog, for instance being one of them.

“They found evidence that those exotic animals were in the market and, more importantly, they found evidence of the virus on some of the same swabs.”

Professor O’Neill said “any sensible person” would conclude the virus must have come from the animals on sale at the market. 

Legacy

Professor O'Neill, who recently returned from a conference in China, said memories of the pandemic in the country are still fresh and painful.

"One of my PhD students is from Beijing and his mother very kindly took me out to dinner with his uncle," he said.

"I asked them, 'What was it like?' and they said, 'It's very sad.'

"Many people died; the big thing was the lockdown - there were three-year lockdowns in some of these cities and they were really stringently enforced.

"The uncle said to me there are massive mental health consequences, huge mental health problems among people who were locked down for so long."

Last year, the former head of China’s Centre for Disease Control,  Professor George Gao, told the BBC that a lab leak could not be ruled out.

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Main image: Split of Luke O'Neill and the Wuhan market Pictures by: Newstalk and Alamy.com.