World Health Organization (WHO) advisers have urged China to release all information relating to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic after the new data was briefly published in an international database used to trace pathogens.
New genetic data on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, along with additional genomic data based on samples collected from a live animal market in Wuhan, China, in 2020, was briefly uploaded by Chinese scientists in the open-access GISAID database earlier this year. ., allowing researchers from other countries to familiarize themselves with them, the WHO Scientific Advisory Group on the Origin of Emerging Pathogens (SAGO) said in a statement on Saturday.
These genetic data on the virus suggested that there were raccoon dogs on the market that could also be infected with the coronavirus, providing new clues to the chain of transmission.
A GISAID spokesperson said the data has been “retired” and is “currently being updated with new and additional data as part of a publication under review”.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control plans to resubmit the data to the scientific journal Nature, according to the statement.
WHO officials say this information is an important link in the investigation into the origin of COVID and should have been provided immediately.
“These data do not definitively answer the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in bringing us closer to that answer,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. “This data could have – and should have – been provided three years ago.”
“We continue to urge China to be transparent in its transfer of data, to conduct necessary investigations and to share results,” he said.
The WHO and other scientists have also said they cannot rule out the possibility that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan where dangerous pathogens are being studied. China denies any such connection.
A 2022 publication notes that a small fraction of 923 samples taken from stalls and sewers in and around the market tested positive for the virus; in 457 animal samples examined, the virus was not detected. Initially, the publication stated that the samples were not taken from raccoon dogs.
The new analysis suggests that “raccoon dogs and other animals may have been present before the market was cleared as part of public health efforts,” SAGO said in a statement.
The WHO has ordered SAGO to continue investigating the origins of the pandemic which has killed nearly 7 million people worldwide.
