The raccoon dogs came from central China, near Wuhan, where close relatives of the pandemic virus have never been found.

Five years after the WHO declared COVID to be a pandemic, questions remain including how many people have died.

“I’m betting raccoon dog,” he said. Holmes had seen raccoon dogs at the Huanan market when he travelled to Wuhan in 2014. But part of the reason that raccoon dogs top the list of suspects is ...

Wuhan has turned the page ... where animals susceptible to the virus were sold, such as raccoon dogs, which could have been the intermediate host before Covid passed to humans.

The virus can bind to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor—the same receptor used by SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells.

Another animal with a raccoon-like face, the raccoon dog has long hair and is related to dogs and foxes. It too featured in the survey of Wuhan’s markets and has been the subject of recent ...

Whether COVID-19 was unleashed by a laboratory mishap or spilled over from animals remains an enduring, fiercely contested mystery.

"Did it come from a bat? Did it get into raccoon dogs or civet cats? Or was it a lab-created virus in Wuhan, China? There does seem to be a jury that's out." Wolfe said we may never know the true ...