Eli5; how we find “patient zero” when there is disease outbreak? (Like how they found who started the ebola outbreak in 2014)

Question

Eli5; how we find “patient zero” when there is disease outbreak? (Like how they found who started the ebola outbreak in 2014)

In: 5171

Answer 1

Hard to find patient zero if s government is covering up everything as in the case of China and COViD

Answer 2

Contact tracing. That’s why they do it. There’s a great PBS documentary called “Spillover: Zika, Ebola, and Beyond” that covers it