Audrey Delsink claims that ‘lessons need to be learned’ and named South Africa as a possible location of where the outbreak’s chain could have begun. She told the Daily Express, a UK tabloid newspaper, the following: “People are so concerned that they are the host species and it’s not inconceivable to consider that it was a pangolin from South Africa that was in the mix there and was the intermediate host. “The fact of the matter is that we have bats and pangolin here.

Bats, especially, host a number of diseases, so in South Africa, we have all those species. We need to start questioning how and what we do with animals because this has brought us to our knees.” Delsink works for the HSI, who are a global animal protection organisation. Her theory is that the mistreatment of certain species, and the way they are transported for profit, could be the catalyst for the illness which has killed citizens in a majority of countries across the planet.

That statement has gone down just about as terribly as one would imagine: The Chinese city of Wuhan has long been established as ‘ground zero’ for the spread of a disease which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Audrey Delsink’s sudden accusation against South Africa has provoked a fierce reaction online.