The "lab-leak theory" of the origins of the COVID-19 virus has been dismissed as a conspiracy theory and seriously considered as plausible explanation, but two studies released Saturday could shed new light on the question, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Both studies show that the virus likely originated in live mammals sold at a market in Wuhan, China, in 2019. According to CNN, one study "used spatial analysis to show that the earliest known COVID-19 cases … were centered on the market" while the other showed that "the two major viral lineages were the result of at least two events in which the virus crossed species into humans."
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