Western researchers say data from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, which China briefly published on an international database, provides information on the genesis of the disease, particularly on the role of raccoons in transmitting the virus to humans.
The researchers, including scientists from the University of Arizona, Scripps Research Institute and Sorbonne University, published a draft report explaining their interpretation of the data, which was published by China.
The Chinese data included new sequences of SARS-CoV-2 and additional genetic data collected from samples from the Huanan Live Animal Market in Wuhan, China, in 2, they said in the draft.
Western researchers said sequences showed that raccoon dogs and other animals vulnerable to the coronavirus were on the market and may have been infected, providing new evidence in the chain of transmission that eventually reached humans.
This "reinforces the body of evidence identifying the Huanan market as the site of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic," they said in their report.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has published data on virus sequences and Huanan market samples on the Global Initiative for Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) database for inclusion in a scientific paper to be published in a renowned journal.
Western researchers said the data had been inaccessible since March 11, and the Global Initiative database said in a statement that the information was "temporarily invisible" because it was in the process of being updated before the publication of the paper, in accordance with standard procedures.