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by sudosysgen 1827 days ago
Because it wasn't. It evolved to become this way. But on the path to this evolution it was not anything of note and no one would notice it.
1 comments
T-A 1826 days ago
Nobody noticed the precursors to SARS and MERS either, until those emerged in humans. But once they did, the precursors were quickly found in civets and camels, respectively.

A reminder: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/26/1021263/bat-covi...

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sudosysgen 1826 days ago
It took half a decade for SARS. It wasn't immediate by any stretch of the imagination.
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T-A 1826 days ago
> It took half a decade for SARS. It wasn't immediate by any stretch of the imagination.

It took less than a year from outbreak to publication:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/302/5643/276

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