Where exactly did the new crown virus come from? There is still no clear answer.

Where exactly did the new crown virus come from? BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua Liu Xu) According to the latest global data of the new crown epidemic released by Johns Hopkins University in the United States, as of 17:00 Beijing time on the 12th, the cumulative number of new crown confirmed cases has exceeded 1.78 million, the global death toll has also exceeded the 100,000 mark.
the global outbreak has been described by the United Nations as "the biggest crisis since World War II", and the source of the new virus that triggered the outbreak has not yet been definitive, and there are no shortage of "conspiracy theories" flooding the media.
recently, scientists from the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries in professional academic journals, trying to trace the source of the virus. on April 8,
, researchers at the University of Cambridge published a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), which linked a bat coronavirus, which is up to 96.2 percent of the same origin as the new coronavirus, to the "ancestor" of the new coronavirus in animals, and used it as a reference to the 160 new coronavirus genes from the Global Shared Influenza Data Initiative (GISAID) database, based on evolutionary, a link.
, the new type A coronavirus is the closest to the coronavirus in bats and has been identified by researchers as the "primitive" type of the new coronavirus that is transmitted in humans.
study found that although the Type A strain appeared in Wuhan, China, but in Wuhan sampleist edified B strain, Type A strain in the United States and Australia study samples more common.
The C strain, which is circulating in Europe, is derived from the Type B variant that has spread in China and East Asia. Dr. Peter Forster, a geneticist at the University of Cambridge who
the paper, said the study was not yet able to provide a definitive answer to the source of the new coronavirus, and he and other scholars will continue to study the issue.
but the evidence found in the study suggests that the new coronavirus initially infected humans from September 13, 2019 to December 7, 2019.
A new genetic study shows that the new coronapneumonia virus has been circulating in the New York area since mid-February, and that the virus is mainly brought by European travelers, not from Asia, ABC News reported Monday. The study, led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, was published on the medical preprintjournal med Rxiv website and has not yet been peer-reviewed,
.
study tracked the origin of the outbreak in New York City by analyzing the entire viral genome across four boroughs and two neighboring towns by March 18.
researchers have found that the new crown outbreak in New York City is mainly caused by untraceable transmission between the United States and Europe, and there is insufficient evidence that the outbreak has spread directly from China or other parts of Asia. "Systematic evolutionary analysis of 84 different SARS-CoV2 genomes shows that these viruses are mainly from other parts of Europe and the United States," said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in
.
", Viviana Simon, professor of microbiology and infectious diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said in a statement that of the 78 cases studied, only one had been infected with a virus that had been significantly introduced from Asia, and that the virus was most closely related to the virus's isolated strain from Seattle. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health,
, told ABC News that the new study "may be correct" about the way and when COVID-19 is in New York.
so far, no paper has been able to give a definitive answer as to where the virus originated.
but back on February 28th, Michael Ryan, who heads the WHO's Health Emergency Program, said at a press conference that "we need to understand the source of the virus so that we can control it and prevent it from re-emerging, not to blame anyone."
", in fact, as the new crown epidemic spread around the world, the voice against the politicization and stigmatization of the virus has become mainstream. On April 7,
, the international comprehensive scientific weekly Nature published an editorial entitled "Stop the stigmaof the new coronavirus", apologizing for linking the new coronavirus to Wuhan.
editorial stressed that "the insistence on associating a virus and its caused disease with a place is irresponsible and needs to be stopped immediately."
" editorial said many leaders wanted to hear the scientific advice of experts and take action to address the new crown pandemic and save lives.
in terms of terminology, the experts' advice is clear: we must do everything we can to avoid and reduce stigma; we must not compare COVID-19 to a particular group or place; the virus does not discriminate - we all have risks.
" new crown virus stigma must stop - without delay.
" previously reported: Why scientists around the world are obsessed with finding the source of the new coronavirus in Japan, South Korea, Italy, the United States... As more and more countries find confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia with "no history of travel or close contact with China", there is reason to doubt the claim that the new crown virus originated in China.
Zhong Nanshan's statement that "although xinguan pneumonia first appeared in China, but the origin of the outbreak is not necessarily in China" has sparked a greater social media debate. In the joint report,
also opens with a discussion of the origin of the new crown virus.
However, neither the report itself nor the experts interviewed by the Global Times believe that there is insufficient evidence to state the exact source of the new coronavirus, and that it is too early to discuss the origin of the virus at home or abroad without a basis.
the joint report describes the new coronavirus as an emerging pathogen, and existing knowledge of the "animal origin and natural host of the virus" "animal-to-human infection process esquire" and "early exposure to unknown cases" and other sources of infection are limited.
it is known to be an animal-derived virus, and early cases found in Wuhan are believed to have been transmitted to humans through animals, but as of February 25, the animal's origin has not been identified.
the new coronavirus was closely related to the whole genome-wide strain of The Bat-borne SARS-like coronavirus RaTG13, with a homologous 96%.
"The bat appears to be the host of the virus, but the intermediate host has not yet been identified".
the current war fight is at a critical stage, why do scientists in various countries have to focus on finding seemingly insignificant "new coronavirus origin"? Many netizens distort the reasons for it as "shake the pot" and derive a statement similar to "the United States is the first to become ill and then infected with China". Professor Wang Peiyu, vice president of the School of Public Health at Peking University's Department of Medicine,
, told the Global Times on March 1 that the virus trace can be called the core of the epidemic prevention and control, the purpose is to find the source of virus transmission, to find out the initial transmission of the virus, mutation laws and potential risks, from the source of the virus to provide an important scientific basis for epidemic prevention and control.
now academic research has shown that pangolins are potential intermediate hosts of the new crown virus, how can a scarcity of pangolins cause such a large-scale infection? How the virus goes from animal to human, and how the epidemic spreads in human society is still unknown. In particular, the joint report
warned that areas where outbreaks have occurred "must consider the risk of the virus relapsing" because the animal origin of the new coronavirus is not known.
some of the newly diagnosed patients with new crown pneumonia in many countries have no history of travel and close contact with China, will the new crown virus be transmitted independently in many places? Yang Zhanqiu, a professor at the Institute of Virology of Wuhan University's Ministry of Medicine, told the Global Times that according to the basic requirements of the outbreak of infectious diseases, the first large-scale outbreak of new crown pneumonia was in Wuhan, China, and the first new crown virus tested from the patient's body was also in Wuhan, so Wuhan is the birthplace of the outbreak.
but this does not mean that the source of the new crown virus must have started in Wuhan, the new crown virus may have multiple origins in the same period, may come from different animals, different people or different regions. "A genome-wide sequencing analysis of 104 new coronavirus strains isolated from patient specimens collected at different locations between the end of December 2019 and mid-February 2020 showed that they were 99.9% homologous and had no significant genetic mutations," the
joint report said. Yang Zhanqiu,
, said more research was needed to determine where the virus originated.
China needs to pay attention to epidemiological research, such as investigating the relationship between the first group of patients.
very detailed questions about their relationship, whether they have a history of travel abroad or their history of contact with others and animals, and to understand the intrinsic connection between these patients.
can track results through multidisciplinary collaboration across multiple departments.
as to whether the flu outbreak in the United States is related to the new coronavirus, Yang Zhanqiu believes that it is not impossible, but the need for scientific evidence.
if the United States from a certain number of influenza patients detected 1/3 or 1/2 of the patients with the new coronavirus, the earliest Wuhan new coronary pneumonia patients have a history of contact with the United States or the United States travel history, and the virus in the body is the same as the new coronavirus circulating in the United States, can indicate that the Wuhan new coronapneumonia virus originated in the United States.
it depends on whether U.S. researchers will do such retrospective research and whether they will publish their findings.
Wang Peiyu said that the world has already achieved integration, frequent exchanges, a country alone can not prevent the spread of the virus.
Chinese researchers have made their research results public to the international community, the international community should also cooperate fully, through cross-border research and demonstration to find out whether the new coronavirus escant virus esbeing around the world, whether there are differences in genetic sequence, to determine whether the new coronavirus has other sources.
the World Health Organization should also play a greater role in coordinating between countries, thereby cutting off the transmission of the virus as much as possible.
Zhong Nanshan: the study of basic support virus comes from bats, the outbreak in the next 10 days to two weeks or the current peak research basic support virus from bats, whether there is an intermediate host is still need to study;
the outbreak of pneumonia infected with the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV), the whole country has joined forces and made a concerted battle to prevent an outbreak without smoke.
Zhong Nanshan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a member of the Scientific Research Group of the New Coronary Virus Infection Prevention and Control Mechanism, said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday that there should be a scientific understanding of the 2019-nCoV pneumonia outbreak, scientific and effective prevention and control, and avoid unnecessary panic.
study basically supports the virus originating in bats, the presence of an intermediate host is also needed to study the presence of a coronavirus (Coronavirus, CoV) is a class of envelopular positive single-stranded RNA viruses that spread widely in humans, other mammals and birds and can lead to diseases such as the respiratory tract, intestines, liver and nervous system.
there are currently seven types of CoV known to cause human diseases, four of which are CoV-229E, -OC43, -NL63 and -HKU1, which are prevalent in the population and usually cause common cold symptoms.
three other SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, including the 2019-nCoV, are seriously harmful and can lead to severe pneumonia and even death.
, the current 2019-nCoV has published some of the results of research, the epidemic prevention and control has a certain reference significance.
epidemiological studies show that the median age of 2019-nCoV pneumonia patients is 59 years old, 56% male, the average incubation period for viral infection is 5.2 days (95% confidence interval is 4.1 to 7.0), and 95% distribution point is 12.5 days. the
virus spread ingress averaged 2.2.
fever is still the typical symptoms of 2019-nCoV infection patients, although there are also symptoms of infection reported, but not the main body, in terms of the current prevention and control still need to focus on the majority.
analysis of the genome of 2019-nCoV shows that it is 79.5% similar to SARS-CoV, and 96% similar to bat source CoV, which basically supports 2019-nCoV from bats, but the existence of intermediate hosts is currently needed to be studied.
2019-nCoV, like SARS-CoV, enters human cells through ACE2 receptors, and the receptor binding domains of the two have a higher similarity.
studies have also found that SARS-CoV-specific monoclonal antibody CR3022 can be effectively combined with the 2019-nCoV receptor binding domain to neutralize viral infections, which also provides an idea for the development of antibody drugs.
Zhong Nanshan, the virus damage to the body is mainly two aspects, one is the virus damage to the body's cells caused by direct damage, and the other is damage caused by damaged cell tissue indirect immune damage.
if the auto-immune response is too strong, it can lead to more serious damage to the body, leading to serious illness.
the most effective way is still "early detection, early isolation" "the current national outbreak is still on the rise, but we judge that there should not be a national outbreak, but may only be a partial outbreak."
" Zhong Nanshan said that in the face of the 2019-nCoV pneumonia outbreak, the most original and effective method is still "early detection, early isolation."
" To this end, our government and related departments have taken a number of national initiatives: extended holidays, traffic control, physical temperature detection in public places, active advocacy of less gathering, personal protection knowledge, and the improvement of national public safety awareness also ensures the smooth implementation of relevant measures.
" Zhong Nanshan said: "These measures effectively block the source of infection, greatly reduce the second and third generations of infection, we judge that the outbreak is expected to peak in the next 10 days to two weeks or so, but we still need to strengthen prevention and control, can not relax vigilance."
would like to express my special gratitude to Wuhan, a heroic city, for their important sacrifices and contributions.
" Source: China New Network, Global Daily, News Morning Post.