Coronavirus first appeared among workers clearing bat faeces from Chinese mineshaft back in 2012 and may not have come from Wuhan market, scientists say
- Miners were removing bat faeces from the Mojiang mine in Yunnan province
- Six fell ill with a pneumonia-like illness which resulted in three of them dying
- Sample tissue from patients with were sent to a lab in Wuhan eight years ago
It is believed that Covid-19 may have originated in a Chinese mineshaft in 2012 and not in Wuhan.
Scientists believe that the virus could actually have began 1,000 miles away from the wet market in Wuhan.
Six miners fell ill with a pneumonia-like virus in the Mojiang mine in southwestern China‘s Yunnan province eight years ago.
The miners had spent two weeks removing bat faeces resulting in three of them dying from the virus.
Scientists believe that the virus could have began in the Mojiang mine, pictured, in China’s Yunnan province eight years ago when six miners fell ill after spending two weeks removing bat faeces
According to The Sun, Physician Li Xu, who treated the miners, describes how the patients had a high fever, a dry cough, sore limbs and, in some cases, headaches.
These are symptoms we now associate with Covid-19 according to Virologist Jonathan Latham and molecular biologist Allison Wilson.
Latham and Wilson who both work for the non-profit Bioscience Resource Project in Ithaca, read the thesis written by Chinese medical doctor who treated the miners.
The miners, who had been digging at the Moijang mine, pictured, had a high fever, a dry cough, sore limbs and, in some cases, headaches which are symptoms we now associate with Covid-19
Researchers are trying to trace the origin of Covid-19, pictured
They said that the evidence in the thesis led them to ‘reconsider everything’ they thought they knew about the pandemic.
Latham told New York Post that the coronavirus ‘almost certainly escaped’ from the Wuhan lab.
They believe the virus, which has killed over 760,000 people worldwide, evolved inside the miners and was highly adapted to humans.
The doctor who treated the six miners sent sample tissue to a lab in Wuhan who found it to be a SARS-like coronavirus from a Chinese rufous horseshoe bat. Pictured, scientists swab bats to try and find the origins of Covid-19
Sample tissues from the infected miners to the Wuhan lab by the doctor, where many believed the virus was leaked from.
Scientists at the lab then found the source of infection was a SARS-like coronavirus from a Chinese rufous horseshoe bat.
The wet market in Wuhan is still believed to have been where the virus started in December 2019.
Virologist Jonathan Latham and molecular biologist Allison Wilson believe the disease escaped from a lab in Wuhan and not the wet market as it is believed. Pictured, a vendor at a Chinese market cuts meat