Scientists zero in on a market in the city of Wuhan as the place the pandemic started. But information on China’s wild-animal trade is hard to uncover.

We Meet:

Michael Standaert, freelance journalist based in China

Alex Crits-Christoph, bioinformatician, Johns Hopkins University

Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser

Ho-fung Hung, political economist, Johns Hopkins University

Links:

No one can find the animal that gave people covid-19, MIT Technology Review

In search for coronavirus origins, Hubei caves and wildlife farms draw new scrutiny, The Washington Post

The Huanan market was the epicenter of SARS-CoV-2 emergence, Zenodo

Holding Beijing Accountable For The Coronavirus Is Not Racist, Journal of Political Risk

Credits:

Curious Coincidence was produced as part of MIT Technology Review's Pandemic Technology Project, which is supported in part by a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation.

The series was created by Antonio Regalado and Jennifer Strong and produced by Anthony Green, Luke Robert Mason and Lindsay Muscato, with help from Emma Cillekens. The executive producer is Golda Arthur.

Theme music was composed and recorded by Jacob Gorski, with Ben Tolliday on cello and Ben Haeuser on woodwinds. The episodes contain original scoring and sound design by Garret Lang.

Art direction by Eric Mongeon with illustration by Selman Design.

The series was edited by Michael Reilly, David Rotman and Jennifer Strong, with fact checking by Matt Mahoney.