Rascoon dogs may be responsible for COVID-19 infection

A new scientific report says that raccoon dogs could be responsible for the COVID 19 infection that killed millions of people worldwide.

What happened: After sifting through the genetic contents of a swab that Chinese investigators first collected in 2020 while combing a market in Wuhan for clues about the outbreak, a team of international experts discovered that it contained loads of genetic material from raccoon dogs.

More than 4,500 long fragments of genetic material from raccoon dogs were found in the sample, along with COVID's genetic signatures. The report said that it had none from humans.

Some COVID-positive swabs taken from other objects and surfaces at the market also had more genetic material from animals than from humans.

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Although genetic material from animals was found in the same place as genetic material from the virus, it doesn't mean that the animals were infected.

Some scientists believe that these animals may have been carrying the virus at the market in late 2019 because of the fact that they found more genetic material from animals, particularly raccoon dogs.

The report said that the evidence from the swab strengthened the case that illegally traded wild animals ignited the epidemic.

If it was a human shedding the virus, one would expect to find human DNA there. The Chinese researchers who had earlier uploaded the important data about the virus removed it from the database when the international team of experts contacted them. International scientists were accused of breaking the rules when the database administrators stopped accessing the information.

Frederic Bushman, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, agreed that the method of the report was sound, but I think the simplest explanation is that it is an infected raccoon dog.