What is the importance of understanding
phylogenetic trees to determine the origins of COVID-
19 or other similar viruses?
Phylogenetic trees help scientists to determine the evolutionary history of pathogens
that transmit through animals to figure out which species they originally utilized as a
host. In the case of COVID-19, it is believed that bats were the original hosts, so I am
curious to know if phylogenetic trees were utilized to come to this conclusion, and if
they are further employed to display the order in which transmission happened to
species? How are phylogenetic trees used to determine the origins of the virus in the
first place?