Advance Search

The Truth about the Origin of COVID-19 Corona Virus

Alemayehu Godana Birhanu
a:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:22:"Addis Ababa University";}
Copyright and Licensing:

Copyright (c) 2026 Ethiopian Medical Journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Share:
  • Articles
  • Submited: January 16, 2025
  • Published: April 9, 2026

Abstract

Origin tracing is crucial for pathogen control and preventing similar infections in the future. Uncertainties remain about the origin of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies confirmed that the virus was there for many years before the recent pandemic. Investigations led by the team of experts reached a strong conclusion that the lab leak hypothesis for the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic is extremely unlikely and presented other possible pathways. Due to their complexity, origin-tracing investigations require global anti-pandemic cooperation among diverse stakeholders to control the ongoing pandemic and prevent and tackle similar public health emergencies. This article presents a critical assessment of speculations and proposes possible mechanisms for the emergence and spread of the pandemic, primarily drawing on literature from the NCBI database.

 

PDF
PDF

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

  1. References
  2. World Health Organization (WHO). Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf. Accessed 08 May 2024.
  3. Weiss, S.R., Forty years with coronaviruses. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 2020. 217(5).
  4. Su, S., et al., Epidemiology, genetic recombination, and pathogenesis of coronaviruses. Trends in microbiology, 2016. 24(6): p. 490-502.
  5. Li, X., et al., Human Coronaviruses: General Features. Reference Module in Biomedical Sciences. 2019:B978-0-12-801238-3.95704-0. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-801238-3.95704-0. Epub 2019 Mar 11.
  6. Chen, B., et al., Overview of lethal human coronaviruses. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 2020. 5(1): p. 89.
  7. Kahn, J.S. and K. McIntosh, History and Recent Advances in Coronavirus Discovery. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 2005. 24(11): p. S223-S227.
  8. Zhong, N., et al., Epidemiology and cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Guangdong, People's Republic of China, in February, 2003. The Lancet, 2003. 362(9393): p. 1353-1358.
  9. Cherry, J.D. and P. Krogstad, SARS: The First Pandemic of the 21st Century. Pediatric Research, 2004. 56(1): p. 1-5.
  10. Zaki, A.M., et al., Isolation of a novel coronavirus from a man with pneumonia in Saudi Arabia. New England Journal of Medicine, 2012. 367(19): p. 1814-1820.
  11. Donnelly, C.A., et al., Worldwide Reduction in MERS Cases and Deaths since.
  12. Zhu, N., et al., A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. New England journal of medicine, 2020. 382(8): p. 727-733.
  13. Cucinotta, D. and M. Vanelli, WHO Declares COVID-19 a Pandemic. Acta Biomed, 2020. 91(1): p. 157-160.
  14. Peiris, J.S., et al., Coronavirus as a possible cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Lancet, 2003. 361(9366): p. 1319-25.
  15. Zaki, A.M., et al., Isolation of a novel coronavirus from a man with pneumonia in Saudi Arabia. N Engl J Med, 2012. 367(19): p. 1814-20.
  16. Zhu, N., et al., A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med, 2020. 382(8): p. 727-733.
  17. Shang, J., et al., Cell entry mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2. 2020. 117(21): p. 11727-11734.
  18. Abbasi-Oshaghi, E., et al., Diagnosis and treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Laboratory, PCR, and chest CT imaging findings. Int J Surg, 2020. 79: p. 143-153.
  19. Cascella, M., et al., Features, evaluation, and treatment of coronavirus (COVID-19). Statpearls [internet], 2023.
  20. Raman, R., K.J. Patel, and K. Ranjan, COVID-19: unmasking emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, vaccines and therapeutic strategies. Biomolecules, 2021. 11(7): p. 993.
  21. Chenchula, S., et al., Current evidence on efficacy of COVID‐19 booster dose vaccination against the Omicron variant: A systematic review. Journal of medical virology, 2022. 94(7): p. 2969-2976.
  22. World Health Organization, Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: implications for infection prevention precautions: scientific brief, 09 July 2020. 2020, World Health Organization.
  23. La Marca, A., et al., Testing for SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): a systematic review and clinical guide to molecular and serological in-vitro diagnostic assays. Reprod Biomed Online, 2020. 41(3): p. 483-499.
  24. Shlomo, I.B., et al., Detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection by exhaled breath spectral analysis: Introducing a ready-to-use point-of-care mass screening method. EClinicalMedicine, 2022. 45: p. 101308.
  25. NIH Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Treatment Guidelines. Downloaded from https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/ on May 05, 2024.
  26. European Medicines Agency. (n.d.). COVID-19 medicines. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory-overview/public-health-threats/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/covid-19-medicines. Accessed on May 23, 2024.
  27. Cui, J., F. Li, and Z.-L. Shi, Origin and evolution of pathogenic coronaviruses. Nature reviews microbiology, 2019. 17(3): p. 181-192.
  28. Rasmussen, A.L., On the origins of SARS-CoV-2. Nature Medicine, 2021. 27(1): p. 9-9.
  29. Wang, Q., et al., Tracing the origins of SARS-CoV-2: lessons learned from the past. Cell Research, 2021. 31(11): p. 1139-1141.
  30. Green, A., Li wenliang. The Lancet, 2020. 395(10225): p. 682.
  31. Bloom, J.D., et al., Investigate the origins of COVID-19. Science, 2021. 372(6543): p. 694.
  32. Maxmen, A. and S. Mallapaty, The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don't know. Nature, 2021. 594(7863): p. 313-315.
  33. Felter, C., Will the world ever solve the mystery of COVID-19’s origin. Link: https://www. cfr. org/backgrounder/will-world-ever-solve-mystery-covid-19s-origin (Erişim: 26.11. 2021). 2021.
  34. WHO, “WHO director-general’s remarks at the Member State Briefing on the report of the international team studying the origins of SARS-CoV-2” (2021); www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/.
  35. Koopmans, M., et al., Origins of SARS-CoV-2: window is closing for key scientific studies. Nature, 2021. 596(7873): p. 482-485.
  36. Mallapaty, S., A. Maxmen, and E. Callaway, 'Major stones unturned': COVID origin search must continue after WHO report, say scientists. Nature, 2021. 590(7846): p. 371-372.
  37. Delaune, D., et al., A novel SARS-CoV-2 related coronavirus in bats from Cambodia. Nat Commun, 2021. 12(1): p. 6563.
  38. https://covid19.nih.gov/news-and-stories/sars-cov-2-spread-faster-sooner-previously-known.
  39. Basavaraju, S.V., et al., Serologic Testing of US Blood Donations to Identify Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-Reactive Antibodies: December 2019-January 2020. Clin Infect Dis, 2021. 72(12): p. e1004-e1009.
  40. Roychoudhury, S., et al., Viral Pandemics of the Last Four Decades: Pathophysiology, Health Impacts and Perspectives. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2020. 17(24).
  41. Wilder-Smith, A., COVID-19 in comparison with other emerging viral diseases: risk of geographic spread via travel. Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines, 2021. 7(1): p. 3.
  42. Zhao, J., W. Cui, and B.P. Tian, The Potential Intermediate Hosts for SARS-CoV-2. Front Microbiol, 2020. 11: p. 580137.
  43. Burki, T., The origin of SARS-CoV-2. Lancet Infect Dis, 2020. 20(9): p. 1018-1019.
  44. Domingo, J.L., What we know and what we need to know about the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Environ Res, 2021. 200: p. 111785.
  45. Gostin, L.O. and G.K. Gronvall, The Origins of Covid-19 - Why It Matters (and Why It Doesn't). N Engl J Med, 2023. 388(25): p. 2305-2308.
How to Cite
Birhanu, A. G. (2026). The Truth about the Origin of COVID-19 Corona Virus. Ethiopian Medical Journal, 64(1). Retrieved from https://emjema.org/index.php/EMJ/article/view/2828

Send mail to Author

Send Cancel