Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 10th. Summary: New research on traceability further supports the origin of the new coronavirus in nature
Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Jiawei
Recently, three scientific research teams from different countries have released new research reports on the traceability of the new coronavirus on the preprint website.
Relevant research results further support the view that the new coronavirus originated in nature, indicating that the "laboratory origin theory" lacks evidence.
The researchers of these teams come from China, the United States and other countries.
The report by researchers from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions analyzed a large number of environmental and animal samples collected at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, providing many useful clues about the spread of the virus in the early stages of the outbreak.
Two reports by researchers from the University of Arizona and other institutions combed data and information from multiple sources such as the World Health Organization, and analyzed the characteristics of virus transmission in the early stages of the epidemic.
At present, all three reports are only published on preprint websites and have not yet been formally published in academic journals through the peer review process.
However, the researchers have a high reputation in the industry, so their findings are widely concerned.
One of the key findings is that there are two strains of 2019-nCoV that circulated in the human population early in the epidemic, known as lineage A and lineage B.
Genetic analysis showed that the two lineages were very different, and it is unlikely that a single source evolved after transmission to humans.
This means that both strains evolved in animals and then spread separately to humans.
University of Arizona virologist Michael Wolloby participated in the research reported by the two international teams.
He told the British journal "Nature" that his views on the origin of the epidemic changed as the evidence mounted.
He had previously stated that the "laboratory origin theory" would not be ruled out, but now he believes that the simultaneous emergence of two new coronavirus strains of different lineages can indicate that the "laboratory origin theory" is extremely unlikely.
Christian Anderson, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States, also participated in the two studies.
He tweeted that data analysis from both reports showed "very clear" that the virus was transmitted to people through infected animals, but "our knowledge of more upstream events is very limited," including : Which animal did the virus come from?
What is the connection between them?
Where are the risks in this regard in the future?
To answer these questions, Anderson said, researchers will need to further analyze more relevant genetic data, ultimately ruling out other hypotheses.
However, it should also be noted that the traceability of the virus involves many aspects, and scientific investigation is full of challenges.
James Wood, a professor at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, once commented on the work of tracing the origin of the virus, saying that retrospective investigations are quite challenging.
"It is very likely that we will never be able to find conclusive evidence of the origin of the virus, and can only give some perspectives on the origin of the epidemic after balancing the various possibilities."