Accidental Release From a Lab or Zoonotic Spillover? Scientists Call for Investigation Into the Origins of COVID-19

Letter from Scientists: Investigate the Origin of COVID-19

More research is needed to determine the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jesse Bloom, Alina Chan, Ralph Baric, David Relman and colleagues say in this letter.

“Theories of accidental release from a laboratory and zoonotic spillover both remain viable,” they say. “Knowing how COVID-19 came about is critical to informing global strategies to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks.”

The authors highlight a joint report from the China-World Health Organization (WHO) on the origin of SARS-CoV-2, some results of which were released in November 2020. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus noted that the report’s consideration of evidence to support a laboratory accident was insufficient, they note. United States and 13 other countries and the European Union agree that more clarity about the origins of this pandemic is needed and feasible, “they say.

They call for an investigation that is “transparent, objective, data-driven, including broad expertise, subject to independent oversight and responsibly managed”. Concluding their letter, they write: “In this time of unfortunate anti-Asian sentiment in some countries, we note that at the beginning of the pandemic it was Chinese doctors, scientists, journalists and citizens who shared crucial information with the world. about the spread of the virus – often at great personal expense. We should show the same determination in promoting an emotionless, science-based discourse on this difficult but important issue. “

Reference: “Investigate the Origin of COVID-19” by JD Bloom at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA; JD Bloom; A. Iwasaki; R. Medzhitov at Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, MD; Y. Alina Chan; BE Deverman at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, MA; RS Baric at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, NC; PJ Bjorkman at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA; S. Cobey at the University of Chicago in Chicago, IL; DN Fisman at the University of Toronto in Toronto, ON, Canada; R. Gupta at Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease in Cambridge, UK; A. Iwasaki; R. Medzhitov at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT; M. Lipsitch at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA; RA Neher; E. van Nimwegen at the University of Basel in Basel, Switzerland; RA Neher; E. van Nimwegen at Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics in Basel, Switzerland; R. Nielsen at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, CA; N. Patterson at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA; T. Stearns; DA Relman at Stanford University in Stanford, CA; M. Worobey at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ; DA Relman at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, CA.
DOI: 10.1126 / science.abj0016