In the early first decade of the twentieth century, the Coronavirus Bruck virus jumped into the raccoon dogs and other wildlife in southwestern China. Some of these animals were sold on the market, where the Corona virus jumped again to humans. The result was the pandemic of the SARS, which spread to 33 countries and claims 774 lives. A few months later, scientists discovered the Corona virus in mammals known as the Palm Civeets sold in a market in the middle of the outbreak.
in A The study was published on WednesdayA team of researchers compared the SARS evolutionary story with the story in Covid after 17 years. The researchers analyzed the virus Corona’s genostnia, along with 248 related Coronic viruses in bats and other mammals.
Jonathan Picard, the emerging virus at Edinburgh University and the author of the new study, said the history of the Coronavin Virustein followed parallel paths. “In my opinion, it is unusually similar,” he said.
Either way, Dr. Picar and his colleagues argue that the Corona virus jumped from bats to wild mammals in southwestern China. In a short period of time, wildlife traders have taken the affected animals hundreds of miles away to the city’s markets, and the virus exports chaos in humans.
“When you sell wildlife in the heart of cities, you will have a pandemic often.”
The study dates back to a political moment fraught with the tested. Last month, the White House Create a web page It is called “Lab Leak: The True Origin of Covid 19”, stressing that the epidemic was not caused by the market sparkle, but by an accident in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Friday, in his proposed budget, the White House described the laboratory leak as “certain” and justified Reducing 18 billion dollars To the National Institutes of Health Partially about what he described as “the agency’s inability to prove that granting it to the Wuhan Institute for virus was not complicit in such a possible leakage.”
The Chinese government responded with a flat denial The reason for this was Covid was the Wuhan laboratory leakage and the possibility that the virus had come instead of the Biodefense Laboratory in the United States.
“A comprehensive and in -depth investigation must be conducted in the origins of the virus in the United States,” the statement said.
Sergey Bond, a virus at the University of Temple, said he was not considered the origin of Kovid. But he was concerned that the burning language of the two governments would make it difficult for scientists to investigate – and discuss it – the origin of Covid.
Dr. Bond said: “If it is not tragic, then you should laugh, this is concerned.”
In the first weeks of the Covid’s pandemic in early 2020, the HIV-SARS-COV-2 was generalized, it was a Biological weapon It was established by the Chinese army. A group of scientists who analyzed the data available at that time rejected this idea. Although they were unable to exclude an accidental laboratory leakage, they are favorite Natural origin from Covid.
With the passage of time, Dr. Worobi, who was not part of that group, became frustrated because there was not enough evidence to choose a single theory on the other. He fell Open message With 17 other scholars calling for more investigation to determine the interpretation was more likely.
“It seems to us that there is a lot that we do not know, so let’s not ignore the idea of laboratory leakage.” “Let’s study it.”
When Dr. Warbobi and other scientists began studying the origin of Kovid, US intelligence agencies were also evaluating them. Their assessments were mixed. The FBI and the CIA prefers to escape from the Wuhan Institute for Virus, despite the low certainty. The Ministry of Energy tends with low confidence in the virus, which escapes from a different laboratory in Wuhan. Other agencies tend to natural origin.
The agencies have not provided their evidence or general analyzes, and therefore scientists cannot assess the basis of their conclusions. However, Dr. Warboubi and other researchers published a series of papers in scientific magazines. Along the way, Dr. Warboubi became convinced that the roaming epidemic began in the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan.
Scientifically, it is clear like Human immunotherapy virus or Spanish fluDr. Worobi said, referring to two illnesses he also studied.
As for the new study, Dr. Warboubi and Dr. Picar and their colleagues compared Jenomat 250 Coronic viruses, using genetic similarities and their differences to determine their relationships. They managed to rebuild the history of Coronavir viruses that cause SARS and Coveet-known as SARS-COV and SARS-COV-2.
The ancestors of both Coronavin viruses in the bats through most China and the neighboring countries for hundreds of thousands of years. In the past fifty years, or so, their direct ancestors have been in the sabotage that has lived in southwestern China and northern Laos.
When the Coronav viruses were infected with the bats, they sometimes ended inside a cell with another corona virus. When the cell made new viruses, it was created by mistake that carried a genetic substance from both the original Corona viruses – a process known as reinstallation.
“These are not old events,” said David Rasmussen, a virus at North Carolina State University. “These things happen all the time. These viruses are really mosaic.”
In 2001, just one year ago before SARSI started a pandemic in the city of Guangzhou, the researchers found that SARS Kove was subjected to his hereditary mixture in the bats. Only then re -installation, the virus had evolved into a human nurse. Since Guangzhou is several hundreds of miles away from the SARS-COV area, the bats will not be able to bring the virus to the city in a very few time.
Instead, the researchers generally agree, the ancestors of the wild mammals infected with the SARS who were subsequently sold in markets around Guangzhou. A few months after the start of the SARS, the researchers find out SARS-COV in Palm Civets and other wildlife for sale in the market.
The researchers found a similar pattern when they turned into SARS-COV-2, causing Covid. Another re -installation occurred in the bats between 2012 and 2014, five to seven years before the roaming epidemic, several hundred miles to the northeast, in Wuhan.
This was also a great exit from the area where the ancestors of the virus circulated. But it was similar to the journey made by SARS Cove, with the permission of the wildlife trade.
Supporters of laboratory leakage theories I highlight The long distance between Wuhan and the sites where the closest relatives of SARS-COV-2 were found. If the bats are unable to fly to the area surrounding Wuhan and hit the wild mammals there, they preserve them, then the scientists must have collected the Corona virus from the bats in southwestern China and tampered with it in their laboratory, then fled from it.
American scientists have criticize Wuhan Institute for Viruses to attend inaction guarantees in crown virus experiments. But no one provided that the Salas-COV-2 was at the Wuhan Institute for Viruses before the epidemic. The new study, conducted by Dr. Warbobi and his colleagues, shows that bats can travel long distances without the help of scientists, through the trade of wildlife.
The researchers argue that these results are consistent with their studies in 2022, which referred to the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan as a place where the Covid epidemic began. Wild mammals have been sold there. a lot Early cases Covid was recorded there, and Chinese researchers collected various strains of SARS-COV-2 carrying distinctive mutations there. Dr. Warboubi and his colleagues argued that The virus was spilled twice One of the wild mammals on the market.
Dr. Bond said that the new study was consistent with the theory of wildlife magazine. But it does not consider the issue a settlement. He pointed out that last year, two statistics Take the case With the model behind the 2022 study. Doctor, Public and his colleague rose This criticism. “This discussion is still ongoing,” said Dr. Bond.
Mark EliteThe former director of the Discovery Pathogen laboratory at the Pastor Institute in Paris said that the new study was important to provide a clear picture of the place from which Sars-COV-2 came from.
But he also noticed that the Corona virus was significantly different from its closest relatives known to the bats. After splitting from these viruses, it must have mutated or underwent the formula to become good to spread in humans.
“I confirm that the possibility of re -installation – whether accidental or deliberate – in a laboratory environment remains just like the hypothesis of appearing through an intermediate host in the market,” said Dr. Elita.
Dr. Elit and other scientists agreed that finding a broker of SARS-COV-2 in wild mammals would make a convincing issue of natural effects. The Chinese authorities looked at some animals at the beginning of the epidemic and did not find the virus in it.
However, wildlife sellers in Hananan market removed their animals from the stalls before scientists could study. Once China puts wildlife sales, farmers have canceled their animals.
“There is a large piece of missing, and you cannot dance about it,” said Dr. Bond.
Stephen Goldstein, the genetic scientist at the University of Utah, who has not referred to the new study, said the research is a warning about the risk of the Coronav virus in the future. The wild mammals sold on the market can become anywhere in the area where Sars and Kovid began a city for a city hundreds of miles away. “There are parts of these viruses in all these places,” said Dr. Goldstein.
