Coronavirus, COVID-19 has taken over the world. We are in the middle of a global epidemic and what the future holds for all of us and this viral flu is still unknown. Every news outlet, social media post, and conversation seem to be directly related to the virus. So, let’s take a look at how this virus MAY have started according to a study published by The Lancet on Jan 29.

In the study, researchers analyzed 10 genome sequences of the novel coronavirus that were obtained from nine Chinese patients who were positive with the virus.

What they found was that they shared 99.8% of the same genetic sequence. This indicates that the virus was spread to humans recently. What that means is that if the virus were older, the sequences would have differed from each other significantly given that virus’ mutate at such a fast pace.

Most of the initial cases of COVID-19 patients were people who had worked at or visited the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China. With that knowledge, researchers compared the 2019-nCoV genetic sequence with those in a library of other viral sequences, and found that the closest related virus to 2019-nCoV were actually two combined coronavirus’ that had originated in bats. Both of the said virus’ shared 88% of their genetic sequence with Covid-19.

With this knowledge, the authors declared that this virus most likely originated in bats. That said, there were apparently no bats sold at this particular seafood market which suggests that the virus could have potentially originated from another species or host.

“It seems likely that another animal host is acting as an intermediate host between bats and humans,” said study co-lead author Guizhen Wu, of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the virus is still under rigorous study, we can expect more answers in the foreseeable future. For now, this study would suggest that an unknown species, perhaps a snake (as a previous study suggested), were the middle host of this virus.

However, some experts have denounced this theory as there is no information yet on whether coronavirus’ can affect snakes at all.