wall street journal Scientists at a Beijing institute had sequenced the virus SARS-CoV-2 on December 28, 2019, two weeks before the Chinese government announced the existence of the virus, it was revealed on Wednesday. .
In December, the study results were uploaded by Dr. Lili Ren to the GenBank database run by the National Institutes of Health. journal The U.S. Department of Health Services House Committee reported after reviewing documents provided.
It was not until January 11, 2024 that China shared information about the virus with the World Health Organization (WHO).
deleted from database
Earlier, China had claimed that the Wuhan virus, which broke out at a seafood market in South China, was a “viral pneumonia of unknown etiology,” as the WHO put it.
The report also cites information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says China shared the sequence with its counterpart centers on January 5, but did not provide any information to scientists around the world.
According to the report, Dr. Wren’s sequence was removed from the database on January 16, based on the findings of HHS Assistant Legislative Secretary Melanie Egolin, which was forwarded to the committee chairwoman, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. It is said that
This came after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requested further technical information about the sequence, and Dr. Ren declined to comment.
But on Jan. 12, the NIH released information it obtained from another source, Egolin said.
Egolin says there are striking similarities between the two sequences.
Dr. Ren is a member of the Chinese government-run Institute of Pathogen Biology. She is also listed as an investigator on a U.S.-funded research project investigating how coronaviruses are transmitted from animals to humans. The study, which involved collecting specimens from bats, was conducted by the global nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance. journal He added further.
These findings led the committee chairman to have strong doubts about any scientific information provided by China. Two weeks of silence on behalf of China may have been the key to a deeper understanding of the disease, the report concludes.