Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Report Released On Covid Samples Found In Wuhan Raccoon Dogs
The New York Times: Wuhan Market Samples Contained Covid and Animal Mixtures, Report Says
On Jan. 12, 2020, Chinese investigators combing a market for clues about the outbreak of a mysterious new illness in the city of Wuhan swabbed a cart. It was the kind typically used for transporting animal cages, and it came back positive for the coronavirus. Three years later, a team of international experts has sifted through the genetic contents of that swab, which were quietly uploaded to an international database and made public only this year. In a report released on Monday night, the scientists described in detail for the first time evidence from the swab that they say strengthens the case that illegally traded wild animals ignited the coronavirus pandemic. (Mueller, 3/21)
The Guardian: Newly Released Chinese Covid Data Points To Infected Animals In Wuhan
What is significant about the new research is that it identifies high levels of DNA from several species that were not identified as having been tested during the original sampling. That includes racoon dogs, which it is speculated may have been present at the market before it was cleared early in the outbreak as part of the Chinese health authorities’ immediate intervention. Although some of the material was leaked last week, the new report adds more detail about other animals present at the market, as well as showing that some of the Sars-CoV-2 positive environmental samples had more animal than human genetic material in them, which the researchers said was consistent with the animals being infected. (Beaumont, 3/21)
CIDRAP: Report Describes SARS-CoV-2 Market Sequences, Biden Signs Intel Declassification Bill
Authors of the report, posted on a preprint server, examined genetic sequences collected at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, that appeared earlier this month on GISAID before access to them was restricted. Chinese researchers had described their initial findings based on sequencing in a 2022 preprint but plan on publishing a fuller report in Nature. ... The earlier preprint from Chinese researchers suggested that the market may have amplified an already established epidemic. However, the international group said it found evidence of multiple animal species where positive SARS-CoV-2 environmental samples were found, including some that weren't included on an earlier list of live or dead animals tested at the market. (Schnirring, 3/21)
The Atlantic: The Missing Data That Could Help Turn The COVID Origins Debate
But what might otherwise have been a straightforward story on new evidence has rapidly morphed into a mystery centered on the origins debate’s data gaps. Within a day or so of nabbing the sequences off a database called GISAID, the researchers told me, they reached out to the Chinese scientists who had uploaded the data to share some preliminary results. The next day, public access to the sequences was locked—according to GISAID, at the request of the Chinese researchers, who had previously analyzed the data and drawn distinctly different conclusions about what they contained. (Wu, 3/21)
CDC workers describe the early days of the pandemic —
The New York Times: ‘We Were Helpless’: Despair At The CDC As The Covid Pandemic Erupted
In early March 2020, as the nation succumbed to a pandemic, a group of young scientists walked out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. They left quietly, one or two at a time, through the building’s front doors, flashing their badges at guards, instead of through side exits where their departures would be recorded. Gathering in a small park across the street, they stood with their coffees in hand and agonized over some shocking developments. (Mandavilli, 3/21)
In related news from China —
The New York Times: China Approves An MRNA Covid Vaccine, Its First
China has for the first time approved a Covid-19 vaccine based on mRNA technology, greenlighting a homegrown shot months after the ruling Communist Party eliminated its strict pandemic restrictions. China has long refused to use the foreign-made mRNA shots that were crucial in easing the pandemic in many parts of the world and that the United States first authorized for emergency use in December 2020. Beijing chose instead to promote its own pharmaceutical firms, first in rolling out a more traditional but less effective Covid vaccine, and later, in the pursuit of a homegrown mRNA, or messenger RNA, vaccine. (Hong and Stevenson, 3/22)
