Advisors to the World Health Organization on Saturday urged China to launch all info associated to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic after new findings had been briefly shared on a global database used to trace pathogens.
New sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in addition to extra genomic information based mostly on samples taken from a dwell animal market in Wuhan, China in 2020 had been briefly uploaded to the GISAID database by Chinese scientists earlier this 12 months, permitting them to be seen by researchers in different nations, in accordance with the assertion from the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).
The sequences recommended that raccoon canines had been current available in the market and should have additionally been contaminated by the coronavirus, offering a brand new clue within the chain of transmission that finally reached people.
Access to the data was subsequently restricted “apparently to allow further data updates” by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
WHO officers mentioned the matter with Chinese colleagues, who defined that the brand new information had been meant for use to replace a preprint research from 2022. China’s CDC plans to re-submit the paper to the scientific journal Nature for publication, in accordance with the assertion.
WHO officers say such info, whereas not conclusive, represents a brand new lead into the investigation of COVID’s origins and may have been shared instantly.
“These data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on Friday. “These data could have – and should have – been shared three years ago.”
“We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results,” he stated.
SAGO was tasked by the WHO to proceed to analyze the origins of the pandemic that has killed almost 7 million individuals worldwide.
“(This is) newly analysed data and nothing new,” stated George Gao, professor on the Institute of Microbiology on the CDC, when requested by Reuters why the sequences weren’t uploaded earlier than. He stated that GISAID, the pathogen database, took down the sequences, not the scientists.
“All this must be left for scientists to work on?NOT for journalists or public. We are eager to know the answer,” he added in an emailed assertion.
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was shut down by Chinese authorities after the novel coronavirus emerged within the metropolis in late 2019. The market has since been a spotlight of research of whether or not the virus had contaminated a number of different species earlier than leaping to people.
The WHO and different scientists have additionally stated they can’t rule out the chance that the virus emerged from a high-security laboratory in Wuhan that research harmful pathogens. China denies any such hyperlink.
The 2022 preprint paper stated {that a} small portion of 923 samples collected from the stalls and sewage methods in and across the market examined constructive for the virus; no virus was detected in 457 animal samples examined. The paper stated initially that raccoon canines weren’t among the many animals examined.
The new evaluation suggests “that raccoon dog and other animals may have been present before the market was cleaned as part of the public health intervention,” the SAGO assertion stated. —Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
