The virus was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, with many suspecting links to a live animal market, before spreading around the world and killing nearly 7 million people so far.
Chinese data from Wuhan market offers clues to COVID origins. Photo: Reuters
International researchers released a report on Monday, after their findings were leaked to the media last week. The data includes new sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and additional genomic data based on samples taken from the Huanan market in Wuhan in 2020.
Genetic sequences suggest that raccoon dogs and other animals susceptible to the coronavirus were present at the market and may have been infected, providing new clues in the chain of transmission to humans, the report said.
“This adds to the growing body of evidence identifying the Huanan market as the site of Sars-CoV-2 transmission and the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report said.
Data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was uploaded to GISAID, a global pathogen database, but was later withdrawn.
The report was written by authors including Michael Worobey of the University of Arizona, Kristian Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and Florence Debarre at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France — who had access to the data before it was taken down. They said they did not violate any rules in accessing the data.
The China CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Asked Monday why the data first appeared online and then disappeared, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin referred reporters to “relevant agencies” for more information.
He said China "has always supported and participated in global scientific cooperation on origin tracing" and would continue to do so, but the international scientific community also needed to share "their research on viruses originating from other parts of the world with China".
WHO has previously said that all hypotheses about the origin of COVID-19 are still under consideration, including the possibility that the virus emerged from a Wuhan laboratory that specializes in studying dangerous pathogens.
China denies any such link. The WHO also said most evidence points to the virus coming from an animal, likely a bat.
Mai Anh (according to Reuters)
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