DNA from the animals, which were sold in a Wuhan market, were found in close proximity to SARS-CoV-2 genetic material
March 17, 2023 1:58 PM EDTn another twist to the ongoing search for where COVID-19 originated, an international group of researchers stumbled upon new genetic material that had been posted on a public scientific database—and then abruptly deleted., in early March, Florence Debarre, an evolutionary biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, was searching the public database GISAID, where scientists upload genetic sequences of pathogens they study.
Debarre, along with researchers from the U.S. and Australia, studied the genetic sequences further and found that one could be traced to a cart from a stall that one of the scientists from the team remembered from a visit to the market back in 2014,. At that time, raccoon dogs were kept on a cart in which their cages were placed on top of cages housing birds, a setup that infectious disease experts know can promote the spread of viruses from species to species.
The scientific and political communities have long been divided over whether SARS-CoV-2 came from animals and spread to humans, or whether the virus was created—either intentionally or accidentally—by researchers at the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology and then spread to animals and people around the globe. In the most recent intelligenceon the subject, the U.S. Department of Energy leaned toward the lab-leak hypothesis, but classified its conclusion as “low confidence.” Four other U.S.
The new samples Debarre found may help to provide some answers. But shortly after she and other scientists reached out to the Chinese team who had written the original report, the genetic sequences disappeared from GISAID., Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 technical lead, called upon China to make the deleted data available to scientists. “The big issue right now is that this data exists and that it is not readily available to the international community,” she said.
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