Timeline: Tracking the Origin of SARS-CoV-2

 

 

The Huanan Seafood Market

 

  1. 1/1/2020: Huanan Seafood Market was closed and cleaned up.
  2. 3/5/2020: Local authority completely remodeled Huanan Seafood Market.
  3. 5/12/2020: The Chinese Disease Control Center said animal samples from the market (collected between 1/1 - 1/12/2020) had no infection of SARS-CoV-2, thus ruled out the possibility that the Huanan Seafood Market was the origin of COVID-19.

 

Biosafety in China

 

  1. 2004: SARS virus escaped twice from laboratories in China.
  2. 2015: Wuhan Institute of Virology published their successful research on whether they can genetically modify a bat coronavirus to infect human cells. The team engineered a hybrid virus, combining a bat coronavirus with a SARS virus. The hybrid virus was able to infect human cells.
  3. 9/18/2019: Wuhan held an emergency response drill for "Novel Coronavirus."
  4. 1/3/2020: A Chinese scientist, Li Ning, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling experimental animals to local markets. 
  5. 2/17/2020: China introduced its first biosecurity law. 
  6. 4/15/2020: Chinese authority ordered that all research about the origins of COVID-19 need approval from the government before researchers submit them to international scientific journals.


Mysterious Patient Zero

 

  1. 1/24/2020: A Lancet research article indicated that 13 of the first 41 cases of COVID-19 had no link to the Huanan Seafood Market.
  2. 2/18/2020: BBC News published a Chinese report interviewing one of the authors of the Lancet article. She mentioned the first patient identified in Wuhan was ill on 12/1. The patient had been at home for months because of stroke and Alzheimer's disease. He had never been to the Huanan Seafood Market. 
  3. China never identified its Patient Zero of COVID-19.
  4. Scientists have not identified the animal host of SARS-CoV-2. Multiple research studies showed that the virus has the highest affinity with human cells.


(Photo Credit: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/23/22/23795084-0-image-a-3_1579817027497.jpg)


Reference


  1. Wall Street Journal: China Rules Out Animal Market and Lab as Coronavirus Origin https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-rules-out-animal-market-and-lab-as-coronavirus-origin-11590517508
  2. The Scientist: SARS escaped Beijing lab twice https://www.the-scientist.com/news-analysis/sars-escaped-beijing-lab-twice-50137
  3. The Daily Mail: China built a lab to study SARS and Ebola in Wuhan - and US biosafety experts warned in 2017 that a virus could 'escape' the facility that's become key in fighting the outbreak https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7922379/Chinas-lab-studying-SARS-Ebola-Wuhan-outbreaks-center.html
  4. Nature Medicine: A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985
  5. Nature: Prominent animal-cloning researcher sentenced to 12 years in prison https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00051-2
  6. South China Morning Post: China to fast-track biosecurity law in coronavirus aftermath https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3051045/china-fast-track-biosecurity-law-coronavirus-aftermath
  7. The Guardian: China clamping down on coronavirus research, deleted pages suggest https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/11/china-clamping-down-on-coronavirus-research-deleted-pages-suggest
  8. The Lancet: Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Chinahttps://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext
  9. BBC: 肺炎疫情：模糊不清的“零号病人”与病毒来源争议 https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-51540821

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