9:00 p.m.: Next week Japan will ease tough coronavirus border controls that have been criticized as xenophobic and damaging to the economy.
An estimated half million foreign students, teachers, workers accredited as technical interns and business travelers have been locked out and waiting to get in for nearly two years.
But experts in psychology say people’s views on reopening will vary widely, based on both their lived experience and their attitude toward risky behaviours.
Analyzing data from a variety of sources, they concluded that the coronavirus was very likely present in live mammals sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in late 2019 and suggested that the virus twice spilled over into people working or shopping there.
Together, they represent a significant salvo in the debate over the beginnings of a pandemic that has killed nearly 6 million people globally and sickened more than 400 million.
But some outside scientists who have been hesitant to endorse the market origin hypothesis said they remained unconvinced.
In their new study, Worobey and his colleagues present evidence that wild mammals that might have harboured the coronavirus were being sold in December 2019.
Only seven of the infections were imported cases, health officials Albert Au and Lau Ka-hin told a briefing on Sunday.