A research paper suggesting that Covid-19 originated in raccoon dogs locked in cages in a Wuhan market has come under fire after data originating from Chinese scientists emerged and has now withdrawn them.
Samples taken from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan were used for the new study that comes just weeks after US authorities doubled down on their belief that the virus leaked from a nearby laboratory in Wuhan.
But the same samples, which have never been shared with the international community, have previously been studied by scientists in China who concluded that the virus did not come from animals on the market.
On Friday morning, the World Health Organization also said the research “does not give us the answers to how the pandemic started” and criticized how the data emerged.
The data was unexpectedly uploaded to an international research database called GISAID last week and downloaded by international researchers who stumbled upon it while searching for other information. Within hours of processing this new data, the team discovered traces of the Covid-19 virus in samples that also contained animal genetic material that matched the raccoon dog.
The new study suggests that the covid originated in raccoon dogs at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. Pictured: A caged raccoon dog at the market in 2014
Researchers have questioned the new article. Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who gained fame for her divisive research supporting the lab leak theory, claimed the new data came from the Chinese Communist Party as an attempt to cover up the leak.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist involved in the research, said: “This is a very strong indication that the animals in the market were infected.” There really is no other explanation that makes sense. But critics have questioned why the data used in the study was removed by the Chinese scientists who uploaded it.
The team contacted the Chinese researchers who had uploaded the files and offered to assist in the investigation, before the data was mysteriously deleted from GISAID.
The new paper has also not been published or peer-reviewed, casting further doubt on its reliability. The data used comes from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Details of the research were first published in The Atlantic, which made the strong claim that the study “may offer some of the clearest and most compelling evidence that the world will ever support an animal origin.”
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist involved in the research, said: “This is a very strong indication that the animals in the market were infected.” There really is no other explanation that makes sense.
But Dr. Stephen Quay, a pharmaceutical chief executive who has studied the origins of Covid, compared publishing research that is based on data that is no longer available to using evidence that does not exist “in a court of law.”
“You can’t say: ‘I’ve seen proof of the origin, but I’m not going to show it to you.’ Just take my word for it,’ he told her to DailyMail.com.
“Especially when these people have previously been liars not once but multiple times. I need to look at the data, investigate if it’s fake and I know I’ll find it, and then post why it’s fake.
Dr Richard Ebright, a microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told DailyMail.com that the new research “adds little to the discussion” about the origin of Covid and requires “extreme caution”.
He said: ‘The claim is made by scientists who… almost exactly one year ago, sold the widely publicized, but later withdrawn, false claim that they had “conclusive evidence” that SARS-CoV-2 had arisen from life wild. trade with the Huanan Seafood Market as the “unmistakable” epicenter.
“His history of past false claims on the subject warrants extreme caution about his new claims on the subject, especially claims for which data is not presented.”
Dr. Steven Salzberg, a professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, told DailyMail.com that it was “very unusual” for data to be deleted after uploading. He said it’s not possible to draw any conclusions about the study until the paper is available and “preferably after it’s been peer-reviewed.”
Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who gained fame for her divisive research supporting the lab leak theory, claimed the new data came from the Chinese Communist Party as an attempt to cover up the leak.
WHO’s technical lead on Covid, Maria Van Kerkhove, said on Friday: “Unfortunately, this doesn’t give us the answer as to how the pandemic started, but it does give us more clues.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added that the data used for the research “could and should have been shared three years ago,” adding: “We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to carry out the necessary actions”. investigations and share the results.’
The document comes a week after FBI Director Christopher Wray said the agency concluded a laboratory leak was the most likely source of the virus.
On February 28, Wray doubled down on the agency’s 2021 findings and accused the Chinese government of working to undermine the damning results.
“The FBI has assessed for quite some time that the origins of the pandemic are likely to be a possible laboratory incident in Wuhan,” Wray said. “Here he is talking about a possible leak from a laboratory controlled by the Chinese government.”
Wray’s comments came after the Department of Energy came to the same conclusion as the FBI.
Wray said last month that the virus was likely the result of a laboratory leak and that the Chinese government has worked to undermine the work of his agency.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning criticized what she called the “politicization” of theories about the origins of COVID-19, following an analysis by the Department of Energy that pointed to the possibility of a leak from the laboratory of Wuhan.
The FBI said in 2021 that it had “moderate confidence” that the pandemic that gripped the world was the result of an accidental leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Wray said last month that the work was done by top FBI and US government experts who specialize in monitoring potential outbreaks.
The FBI has people, agents, professionals, analysts, virologists, microbiologists, etc., who focus specifically on the dangers of biological threats, including things like new viruses like COVID, and the concerns that they get into the wrong hands. some bad guys, some hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminal, the threats that might pose,” Wray said.
“So here, you’re talking about a Chinese government-controlled lab leak that killed millions of Americans, and that’s precisely what that capability was designed to do.”
Despite the FBI’s conclusion, Wray added that Beijing has continuously tried to undermine the work of the US government.
“I’ll just make the point that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing everything they can to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing. they’re doing, and that’s unfortunate for everyone,” he said.