Many researchers believe wild animals were intermediate hosts for SARS-CoV-2, meaning they were infected with a bat coronavirus that then evolved. That includes the virus that caused the 2003 SARS epidemic, which also has been associated with markets selling live animals in China. Scientists said in the Cell paper that SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, is the ninth documented coronavirus to infect humans. Some experts fear the pandemic's origins may never be known. The continuing search for answers has inflamed tensions between the US and China, which has accused the US of making it the scapegoat for the disaster. US intelligence officials have rejected suspicions China developed the virus as a bioweapon. Some supporters of the lab-leak hypothesis have theorised that researchers were accidentally exposed because of inadequate safety practices while working with samples from the wild, or perhaps after creating the virus in the laboratory. Over the summer, a review ordered by President Joe Biden showed that four US intelligence agencies believed with low confidence that the virus was initially transmitted from an animal to a human, and one agency believed with moderate confidence that the first infection was linked to a lab. “The lab leak idea is almost certainly a huge distraction that's taking focus away from what actually happened,” he said. Last month, Worobey published a Covid-19 timeline linking the first known human case to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, where live animals were sold. Since then, he said, his own and others' research has made him even more confident about the animal hypothesis, which is “just way more supported by the data”. Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who contributed to the article, said he always thought zoonotic transmission was more likely than a lab leak but had signed a letter with other scientists last spring saying both theories were viable. The website can also be used to report suspected occurrences of child abuse or endangerment.“The lab-leak scenario gets a lot of attention, you know, on places like Twitter,” but “there's no evidence that this virus was in a lab”, said University of Utah scientist Stephen Goldstein, who with 20 others wrote an article in the journal Cell in August laying out evidence for animal origin. To support the CJC’s mission, donations can be made on the Friends of the CJC of Summit County’s website. According to Walker, “She has already had a calming effect on both children and parents.” The facility also boasts the services of its most valued employee, Kallie, the black lab therapy dog. The new facility is funded by a number of different grants and non-profits, with the largest being the Friends of Children’s Justice Center of Summit County and the Delta Pilots Charitable Fund. Walker points out that this was never an ideal location because there was always the risk that children visiting the center could run into people they knew, thereby endangering their privacy. Prior to the Summit County CJC obtaining its own facility, they operated out of the Summit County Library building. Photo by Blake Peterson & Panic Button Media So the idea of the CJC is to have one location where children can access all of those services at once through a single interview.” Kallie the therapy dog. “We know now that going through all of those interviews separately can cause secondhand trauma. They would then have to go through the same process at the doctor’s office and again at Child Protective Services.” Walker says. “The need for children’s advocacy centers became apparent in the early 90s, when children would have to go to the police department for interviews. The facility also provides space for initial medical exams, mental health evaluations, and other services. Their mission, according to Ted Walker, Executive Director of the Summit County CJC, is to provide a child-friendly atmosphere for interviews to be conducted with children who are alleged to have been abused or neglected. Since then, the facility has provided a safe haven to numerous children and families who are faced with the difficult situation of reporting instances of child abuse to the authorities. While the Summit County Children’s Justice Center (CJC) has existed since 2012, it opened the doors to its own facility for the first time in December 2020.
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