1 of the most compelling clues as to the origins of a after-in-a-century pandemic was uploaded with out announcement – with out getting noticed for weeks – on a scientific database. And then, just as all of a sudden, it vanished from public view.

The genetic information, from swabs taken at the Huanan seafood market place in Wuhan, China, in the weeks following Covid-19 1st emerged, was offered on the internet for only a couple of weeks: just extended sufficient for a Parisian scientist to stumble upon it though functioning from her couch on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month.

Florence Débarre tells Michael Safi how she came to comprehend the significance of the information – and how it bolsters the theory that the most compelling case for Covid’s 1st jump from animals to men and women is that it occurred at the market place.

As the Guardian’s Ian Sample explains, the market place theory of Covid has extended been the favoured explanation from scientists. But not too long ago, US government agencies such as the FBI and the Division of Power have produced statements arguing for the theory that Covid could have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. Joe Biden has ordered the declassification of relevant proof that could assistance that theory – 1 initially, and nevertheless, endorsed by Donald Trump.

Photograph: Chiaki Tsukumo/AP

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