Four lower respiratory tract samples, including bronchoalveolar-lavage fluid, were collected from patients with pneumonia of unknown cause who were identified in Wuhan on December 21, 2019, or later and who had been present at the Huanan Seafood Market close to the time of their clinical presentation. Seven bronchoalveolar-lavage fluid specimens were collected from patients in Beijing hospitals with pneumonia of known cause to serve as control samples. Extraction of nucleic acids from clinical samples (including uninfected cultures that served as negative controls) was performed with a High Pure Viral Nucleic Acid Kit, as described by the manufacturer (Roche). Extracted nucleic acid samples were tested for viruses and bacteria by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), using the RespiFinderSmart22kit (PathoFinder BV) and the LightCycler 480 real-time PCR system, in accordance with manufacturer instructions.12 (link) Samples were analyzed for 22 pathogens (18 viruses and 4 bacteria) as detailed in the Supplementary Appendix. In addition, unbiased, high-throughput sequencing, described previously,13 (link) was used to discover microbial sequences not identifiable by the means described above. A real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) assay was used to detect viral RNA by targeting a consensus RdRp region of pan β-CoV, as described in the Supplementary Appendix.