Home » Origin of Sars-CoV-2 finally clear? New insights from China

Origin of Sars-CoV-2 finally clear? New insights from China

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Origin of Sars-CoV-2 finally clear?  New insights from China

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan has long been identified as the starting point of the corona pandemic. However, the exact origin of Sars-CoV-2 is not yet clear. Most experts assume natural roots. But one key piece of evidence was missing — genetic evidence showing the virus had infected animals sold at the market. That has now changed.

Animal as a pandemic trigger

The magazine ”
The Atlantic
‘ headlines: ‘Strongest Evidence Yet That An Animal Caused The Pandemic’. A French scientist discovered previously unpublished genetic data from the Wuhan food market. She and her team are sure to support the theory that animals infected with the coronavirus started the pandemic there. Like the magazine
Science
‘ reported, several of the researchers presented their findings to the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), an expert group convened by the World Health Organization last year.

“The data are even more indicative of a market origin,” says Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary biologist at Scripps Research who attended the meeting. Andersen is one of the scientists analyzing the new data.

Raccoon dogs as the first carriers of the virus

“Science” describes further details of the research on the mysterious tracks. Florence Débarre, a scientist specializing in evolutionary biology, works at the French National Center for Scientific Research. She dug up the data, which consists of genetic sequences that Chinese researchers had published in GISAID, a virology database. The Chinese team had collected samples from the food market linked to early Covid-19 cases. After Débarre discovered the sequences, GISAID has meanwhile removed them. With the note: This was done at the request of the sender, i.e. the Chinese researchers.

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This may finally be crucial data. The new analysis of the genetic sequences collected from the market shows: raccoon dogs sold illegally on the market could have transmitted and possibly shed the virus by the end of 2019.

Virologist Drosten sees his thesis confirmed

“This actually strengthens the case for a natural origin,” summarizes Seema Lakdawala’s recent findings from China in “The Atlantic”. The professor of microbiology and immunology at Emory University in Atlanta was not involved in the study herself.

The German virologist Christian Drosten also considers the current investigations to be plausible. To the
“Daily Mirror”
says the corona expert, “that this preliminary analysis of Chinese data confirms my always favored hypothesis.”

Of course, all conceivable theories have to be taken seriously, “but an origin from carnivores, especially raccoon dogs or civet cats, is by far the most likely origin,” explains Drosten. “This is based on knowledge of the first Sars virus, where it was the same.”

The research group is now in contact with China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They demand that the genetic sequences be made public. Then the mystery of the origin of Sars-CoV-2 could finally be completely solved.

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