On Friday, the WHO asked the Chinese official about the causes behind not showing the data three years ago and why, after it was posted online in January, it could not be found now.
Before the data got disappeared into the internet space, a global team of virus specialists downloaded and started analyzing the research. The team showed that the data helps the idea that the pandemic could have started from the illegally traded raccoon dogs, which infected the humans at China’s Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.
But the team couldn’t get the outcome as the gene series were removed from a scientific database once the experts proposed to cooperate on the research with their Chinese counterparts, according to The New York Times.
These data could have — and should have — been shared three years ago. The missing evidence now needs to be shared with the international community immediately.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus-the WHO’s director general, said
According to the expert team, the research offers evidence that raccoon dogs had left behind DNA in the same place in the Wuhan market where genetic signatures of the new Covid-19 also were found.
To some experts, that finding suggests that the animals may have been infected and may have transferred the virus to humans. With massive amounts of genetic data removed from swabs of animal cages, carts, and other surfaces at the Wuhan market in early 2020, the genetic data had been the focus of uneasy expectation among virus experts since they learned of it a year ago in a paper by Chinese scientists, reported by The New York Times.
Meanwhile, a French biologist found the genetic series in the database last week and her crew started unearthing for clues about the sources of the pandemic. Her team has not yet released a paper summarizing the findings. But the researchers gave an analysis of the material to a WHO advisory group examining Covid’s origins this week at a conference that also included a presentation by Chinese researchers concerning the same data.
The research appears to be distinct from what China has offered, according to Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago. She appeared to dispute earlier statements by Chinese scientists that samples were taken in the market that were positive for Covid-19 had been hauled in by sick people alone, reported by The New York Times.
It’s just very unlikely to be seeing this much animal DNA, especially raccoon dog DNA, mixed in with viral samples if it’s simply mostly human contamination.”
Dr. Cobey said.
