ArticleScience (New York, N.Y.)2022
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Science (New York, N.Y.), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 180 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
180 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Assessing the Risk of Myocarditis Post-COVID-19 Vaccination: A Systematic Review of Case Reports from 2023 to 2025.Cardiovascular toxicology · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Emerging Viral Zoonotic Diseases, 2016-2026.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2026Pooled it
- Community Engagement Within the Evaluation of Public Policies for Zoonotic Spillover Prevention: A Secondary Matrix Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- A living mapping review for COVID-19 funded research projects: final (27 month) update.Wellcome open research · 2020Pooled it
- Wildlife Trade and Genetic Basis of Disease Susceptibility: A Review.International journal of immunogenetics · 2026Review
- A generalized lineage nomenclature for viral genomic epidemiology.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Pre-existing and cross-reactive immunity to avian influenza H5N1 in humans: Implications for pandemic risk and vaccine strategies.The Journal of infection · 2026Review
- COVID-19 and One Health Governance in Indonesia reveal challenges at the Wildlife Interface.EcoHealth · 2026Article
- Broad-spectrum CRISPR-Cas13d-mediated strategy for combating human coronaviruses.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2026Article
- Wet markets, live animals, and infection concerns in Thailand: A cross-sectional study.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Tick-Tac-Foe: When Ticks, Trade, and Zoonotic Pathogens Align in African Wet Meat Markets.Public health challenges · 2026Review
- From Bench to Insight: Rapid Pathogen Genomic Surveillance Workflow for SARS-CoV-2 and Emerging Pathogens.Genes · 2026Article
- Patterns and Risks of China's Snake Trade Driven by Medicinal and Culinary Traditions.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Review
- Article
- Will animal reservoirs give us the next SARS-CoV-2 variant?PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- COVID's origins: what we do and don't know.Nature · 2026Article
- Synergy of SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 Infections in the Human Brain.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Epidemiological indicators of accidental laboratory-origin outbreaks.Epidemiology and infection · 2026Review
120 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Understanding how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in 2019 is critical to preventing future zoonotic outbreaks before they become the next pandemic. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, was identified as a likely source of cases in early reports, but later this conclusion became controversial. We show here that the earliest known COVID-19 cases from December 2019, including those without reported direct links, were geographically centered on this market. We report that live SARS-CoV-2-susceptible mammals were sold at the market in late 2019 and that within the market, SARS-CoV-2-positive environmental samples were spatially associated with vendors selling live mammals. Although there is insufficient evidence to define upstream events, and exact circumstances remain obscure, our analyses indicate that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 occurred through the live wildlife trade in China and show that the Huanan market was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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