I'm not making any inference - I provided the study and relayed the findings... the author's findings. It's called a data sample; one you claim is incomplete/inadequate - cause you say so! You and your SquirrelDataChops, hey! Apparently, kimmyRules state the study authors must find every/all cases before they can do analysis and present findings! If you'd like to offer a formal comment to the paper, have at it - provide your scientific basis challenging their analysis/findings. Make sure to provide your understanding as to the significance of, as you label them, "the little blue squares". Make sure you don't include any "sciency-looking charts/graphs" in your formal comment... just the real stuff, not "sciency looking"! Oh my, member kimmy! Oh my!
Counterproposal: you find an expert willing to state with any confidence that the outbreak isn't related to the Wuhan seafood market. I doubt that even the source of your sciency-looking graph is making such a claim.
You don't need to be Dr Fauci to understand that a sample of one (1) case is sufficient to draw any conclusion about where the outbreak began. (Dr Fauci is, btw, among those who are concerned that reopening wet markets in China is an unacceptable health risk.)
And once your graph does reach numbers where a trend becomes apparent, what becomes apparent is that the majority can be traced to that market.
The reason Dr Fauci and others are concerned about these markets is that they're a hazard. The Wikipedia article on wet markets contains plenty of citations indicating that experts have been warning about the potential of this exact thing happening, for years: "A ticking timebomb."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_market#Health_concernsHealth concerns
If sanitation standards are not maintained, wet markets containing wildlife products can spread diseases. Because of the openness, newly introduced animals may come in direct contact with sales clerks, butchers, and customers. Insects such as flies have relatively easy access to the food products. The avian flu and SARS outbreaks can be traced to keeping live animals in wet markets where the potential for zoonotic transmission is greatly increased.[71][72] In April 2020, scientist Peter Daszak described a Chinese wet market as follows: "it is a bit of shock to go to a wildlife market and see this huge diversity of animals live in cages on top of each other with a pile of guts that have been pulled out of an animal and thrown on the floor [...] These are perfect places for viruses to spread."[73]
In a 2007 study, Chinese scientists identified the presence of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats combined with unsanitary wildlife markets and the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China as a "time-bomb".[74] A 2018 study in Malaysia concluded that wet market workers were at greater risk for leptospirosis infections.[75]
Chinese environmentalists, researchers and state media have called for stricter regulation of exotic animal trade in the markets.[26] Medical experts Zhong Nanshan, Guan Yi and Yuen Kwok-yung have also called for the closure of wildlife markets since 2010.[32]
Amidst the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Chinese wet markets have been blamed for the outbreak.[76] Some reports say wildlife markets in other countries of Asia,[35][77][78] Africa,[79][80][81] and in general all over the world are also similarly prone to health risks.[82] In April 2020, a group of US lawmakers, NIAID director Anthony Fauci, UNEP biodiversity chief Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, and CBCGDF secretary general Zhou Jinfeng called for the global closure of wildlife markets due to the potential for zoonotic diseases and risk to endangered species.[41][83][84]
-k