The coronavirus wasn’t made in a lab. A Genetic analysis shows it’s from nature(sciencenews.org)
sciencenews.org
The coronavirus wasn’t made in a lab. A Genetic analysis shows it’s from nature
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-not-human-made-lab-genetic-analysis-nature
7 comments
Should be mentioned that the article is more than a year old.
The coronavirus pandemic circling the globe is caused by a natural virus, not one made in a lab, a new study says.
The virus’s genetic makeup reveals that SARS-CoV-2 isn’t a mishmash of known viruses, as might be expected if it were human-made. And it has unusual features that have only recently been identified in scaly anteaters called pangolins, evidence that the virus came from nature, Kristian Andersen and his colleagues report March 17 in Nature Medicine.
The virus’s genetic makeup reveals that SARS-CoV-2 isn’t a mishmash of known viruses, as might be expected if it were human-made. And it has unusual features that have only recently been identified in scaly anteaters called pangolins, evidence that the virus came from nature, Kristian Andersen and his colleagues report March 17 in Nature Medicine.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9
To the Editor — Since the first reports of novel pneumonia (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, there has been considerable discussion on the origin of the causative virus, SARS-CoV-2 (also referred to as HCoV-19). Infections with SARS-CoV-2 are now widespread, and as of 11 March 2020, 121,564 cases have been confirmed in more than 110 countries, with 4,373 deaths.
SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh coronavirus known to infect humans; SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 can cause severe disease, whereas HKU1, NL63, OC43 and 229E are associated with mild symptoms. Here we review what can be deduced about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 from comparative analysis of genomic data. We offer a perspective on the notable features of the SARS-CoV-2 genome and discuss scenarios by which they could have arisen. Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.
To the Editor — Since the first reports of novel pneumonia (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, there has been considerable discussion on the origin of the causative virus, SARS-CoV-2 (also referred to as HCoV-19). Infections with SARS-CoV-2 are now widespread, and as of 11 March 2020, 121,564 cases have been confirmed in more than 110 countries, with 4,373 deaths.
SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh coronavirus known to infect humans; SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 can cause severe disease, whereas HKU1, NL63, OC43 and 229E are associated with mild symptoms. Here we review what can be deduced about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 from comparative analysis of genomic data. We offer a perspective on the notable features of the SARS-CoV-2 genome and discuss scenarios by which they could have arisen. Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.
And even if it's verifiable as a product of nature, that doesn't negate the possibility that it showed up in Wuhan as the result of a lab leak.
The logic in this article is astounding.
One way to make a virus is to splice some genes together from different viruses. This virus was not a mismatch of different viruses, therefore this is not a man-made virus.
It's a bit like saying one way to chop down a tree is with a chainsaw. We didn't see a chainsaw, or chainsaw patterns on this tree stump, therefore this tree must have naturally broken in half.
(Not that I have any particular beliefs on this one way or another, nor do I think this is even an important question on any level - I imagine the Wuhan lab will have upped their security processes regardless of whether they were at fault. But at best this is weak evidence for the conclusion given)
One way to make a virus is to splice some genes together from different viruses. This virus was not a mismatch of different viruses, therefore this is not a man-made virus.
It's a bit like saying one way to chop down a tree is with a chainsaw. We didn't see a chainsaw, or chainsaw patterns on this tree stump, therefore this tree must have naturally broken in half.
(Not that I have any particular beliefs on this one way or another, nor do I think this is even an important question on any level - I imagine the Wuhan lab will have upped their security processes regardless of whether they were at fault. But at best this is weak evidence for the conclusion given)
Exactly right. A man made virus wouldn't be made from scratch. It would have extensive homologous runs of DNA and be a small variant on existing viruses, with some tweak to enhance function.
Dark horse podcast had a good interview with an expert on this week last.
Dark horse podcast had a good interview with an expert on this week last.