After fresh information was briefly posted on a global database used to track pathogens on Saturday, advisors to the World Health Organization urged China to disclose all details regarding the source of the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to the statement from the WHO’s Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), Chinese scientists briefly uploaded to the GISAID database earlier this year, allowing them to be viewed by researchers in other countries, new sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus as well as additional genomic data based on samples taken from a live animal market in Wuhan, China in 2020.
The sequences provided a new hint in the chain of transmission that eventually reached humans by indicating that raccoon dogs were present in the market and may have also been affected by the coronavirus.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) subsequently blocked access to the data “apparently to allow further data updates”
Chinese colleagues who were involved in the conversation with WHO authorities explained that the new data would be used to update a previous study from 2022. According to the announcement, China’s CDC intends to resubmit the study for publication to the academic journal Nature.
