Category: Origins
Research: Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 before Wuhan outbreak in 2019
“In the USA, SARS-CoV-2 reactive antibodies were detected in over 100 blood samples collected in several different states in early December 2019.… ...More...
Preprint: MSH3 omohlogy and potential recombination link to SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site
“A BLAST search revealed that a 19 nucleotide portion of the SARS.Cov2 genome encompassing the furin cleavage site is a 100% complementary match to a codon-optimized proprietary sequence that is the reverse complement of the human mutS homolog (MSH3)”
“A BLAST search for the 12-nucleotide insertion led us to a 100% reverse match in a proprietary sequence (SEQ ID11652, nt 2751-2733) found in the US patent 9,587,003 filed on Feb.… ...More...
SARS-CoV-2 in Angola from 23rd September 2019
“Our findings demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2-reactive antibodies were detected in 40 out of 442 specimens, as early as September 23, 2019”
This retrospective study on blood specimens from measles patients collected from 23 September 2019 to 28 February 2020, reported from the 17 provinces of Angola, suggests evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection months before detection of the virus in Luanda, the epicenter of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Angola.… ...More...
Preprint: Omicron a recombination between BA.1 and B.35 lineages
Here, we show that Omicron lineage SARS-CoV-2 is characterized by the feature of chimera.
It was generated by genomic recombination of two early PANGO lineages of SARS-CoV-2.… ...More...
Preprint: Evidence for a mouse origin of Omicron
“In this study, we identified mutations acquired by Omicron before its outbreak, and tested whether the molecular spectrum of these mutations was consistent with the cellular environment of human hosts… The molecular spectrum of mutations acquired by the progenitor of Omicron…
The molecular spectrum of mutations acquired by the progenitor of Omicron was significantly different from the spectrum for viruses that evolved in human patients, but resembled the spectra associated with virus evolution in a mouse cellular environment”
Preprint: Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
Image by Cmdragon – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0… ...More...
Preprint: Evidence for a mouse origin of the Omicron variant
Pre-outbreak Omicron mutations in the spike protein significantly overlap with mutations in mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2.
The molecular docking-based predictions suggested that the RBD of Omicron exhibited higher binding affinity for mouse ACE2 than that of RBD encoded in the reference SARS-CoV-2 genome, further suggesting an evolutionary history in mice (Fig.… ...More...
Preprint: Omicron is the product of extensive evolution that has left no obvious traces of intermediate forms
The Omicron variant identified in Southern Africa in late November 2021 is the product of extensive evolution within an infection context that has so far left no obvious traces of intermediate forms since it diverged from the B.1.1 lineage (presumably at some time in mid to late 2020).… ...More...
Omicron “incubated in an immunocompromized person for months or serially passaged in a lab”
Some interesting developments on the possible origins of the new Omicron variant, B.1.1.529…
… ...More...The @nextstrain https://t.co/wVE7ubYBoy focal build for 21K (B.1.1.529) is now live.
Evidence of two global Covid waves in 2020, and estimating the pandemic start date
Global Covid waves have been easy to spot in 2021 with their distinctive sine wave pattern, but what about 2020, when testing was largely limited to those with symptoms until late into that year?… ...More...
Preprint: Coronaviruses with a SARS-CoV-2-like RBD isolated from bats of the Indochinese peninsula
“We found that the RBDs of these viruses differ from that of SARS-CoV-2 by only one or two residues”
Here we show that such viruses indeed circulate in cave bats living in the limestone karstic terrain in North Laos, within the Indochinese peninsula.… ...More...
Preprint: Molecular evidence for SARS-CoV-2 in samples collected since late summer 2019 in Lombardy
435 samples from 156 cases were investigated. RNA isolated from oropharyngeal swabs and urine was screened by hemi-nested PCRs targeting key sites for viral typing.… ...More...
Shi Zhengli: We need to learn to live with the virus
Shi Zhengli, China’s ‘Bat Woman’, has said that new variants of Sars-Cov-2 will continue to emerge, but that vaccines are ‘effective’. … ...More...
USA: Republican Mike McCaul’s final report into the origins of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic
Mike McCaul’s final report on the origins of the pandemic can be downloaded here.
A House Republican lawmaker’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19 is raising concerns that the pandemic outbreak stemmed from a genetically modified virus which leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese city where the disease was first detected in December 2019.… ...More...
Moderna founder: “I am convinced that the #coronavirus came out by accident from a laboratory in Wuhan”
The Canadian biologist Derrick Rossi (Toronto, 1966) is one of the founders of Moderna , one of the pharmaceutical companies that has managed to develop one of the coronavirus vaccines.… ...More...