Recovery of deleted deep sequencing data sheds more light on the early Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 epidemic - preprint

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.18.449051v1

Recovery of deleted deep sequencing data sheds more light on the early Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 epidemic
View ORCID ProfileJesse D Bloom
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.18.449051
This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?].
000005259

Abstract

The origin and early spread of SARS-CoV-2 remains shrouded in mystery. Here I identify a data set containing SARS-CoV-2 sequences from early in the Wuhan epidemic that has been deleted from the NIH's Sequence Read Archive. I recover the deleted files from the Google Cloud, and reconstruct partial sequences of 13 early epidemic viruses. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences in the context of carefully annotated existing data suggests that the Huanan Seafood Market sequences that are the focus of the joint WHO-China report are not fully representative of the viruses in Wuhan early in the epidemic. Instead, the progenitor of known SARS-CoV-2 sequences likely contained three mutations relative to the market viruses that made it more similar to SARS-CoV-2's bat coronavirus relatives...

 

[Shiloh]

More on the above: https://threader.app/thread/1407445604029009923

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...cov-sequences-stymie-origin-hunt-sparks-furor


Claim that Chinese team hid early SARS-CoV sequences to stymie origin hunt sparks furor
By Jon CohenJun. 23, 2021 , 7:45 PM

In a world starved for any fresh data to help clarify the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, a study claiming to have unearthed early sequences of SARS-CoV-2 that were deliberately hidden was bound to ignite a sizzling debate. The unreviewed paper, by evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, asserts that a team of Chinese researchers sampled viruses from some of the earliest COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China, posted the viral sequences to a widely used U.S. database, and then a few months later had the genetic information removed to “obscure their existence.”

To some scientists, the claims reinforce suspicions that China has something to hide about the origins of the pandemic. But critics of the preprint, posted yesterday on bioRxiv, say Bloom’s detective work is much ado about nothing, because the Chinese scientists later published the viral information in a different form, and the recovered sequences add little to what’s known about SARS-CoV-2’s origins...

 

[Emily]

Revised a bit.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.18.449051v2

 

[sharon sanders]

bump this