As the Covid-19 coronavirus is now at the heart of a pandemic, researchers continue to investigate its origin. Since the beginning of the epidemic, there has been a little "war" on a scientific pre-publication platform. Several studies contradict each other, so that the animal origin of Covid-19 is not ready to be elucidated.
Now the global coronavirus pandemic is approaching 95,000 cases for more than 3,200 deaths . Remember, however, that there are more than 50,000 cases of remission. If the greatest fears are at the level of the mutation of the coronavirus, researchers have tried and are still trying to find out where it comes from.
The first studies mentioned animals that passed through the Wuhan market. Thus, bats, snakes and other pangolins were considered as a natural reservoir or as an intermediate host. However, the publications very often contradict each other. These appear on bioRxiv, a scientific pre-publication platform that is a bit off the beaten track. In other words, there are studies not validated by other scientists and whose value can be questioned.
At the beginning of February 2020, a study estimated that Covid-19 and a coronavirus isolated from Pangolin had 99% of their genome in common . However, another study published two weeks later claimed that this was not the case. The researchers said there was too much difference in the receptor binding domain surface protein S (Receptor-binding domain / RBD). Other studies published almost at the same time also mention these strains isolated from the pangolins tested. According to the first study, the genome would be similar to Covid-19 up to 90.23% and in the second study this ratio is 91.02%.
Let's mention bats, which have been talked about massively on social networks. Indeed, these are part of the diet of millions of Chinese. However, they are also the subject of research because they share a similarity of their genome with that of humans, up to 96%. However, the researchers were clear. The differences between their RBDs suggest that the bat coronavirus could not infect humans without an intermediate host. However, this intermediate host remains a real mystery that may never be elucidated!
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