WUHAN, May 2, 2020 -- The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, was shut on January 1, 2020 by Chinese authorities. The common narrative told to us by the WHO, who got their information from Chinese authorities, is that the market was “ground zero”, or origin, of the novel coronavirus outbreak. The story has been told that the virus jumped from bats to humans, with the “patient zero” being identified as a shrimp vendor in that wet market. Chinese scholars saw otherwise. Here's a Q&A, with answers based on available, published papers: Q: How many types of human coronavirus are known to science? "Coronaviruses" are called such for the crown-like spikes on their surface. The CDC has identified 4 main sub-groupings of coronaviruses, known as alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. Common human coronaviruses:
Other human coronaviruses:
Q: What are the most common causes of human coronavirus infection? People around the world commonly get infected with human coronaviruses 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1. Sometimes coronaviruses that infect animals can evolve and make people sick and become a new human coronavirus. Three recent examples of this are SARS-CoV-2 (or 2019-nCoV), SARS-CoV(1), and MERS-CoV. Q: Has there ever been a lab-engineered coronavirus from bats? Yes. On November 12, 2015, the highly-respected scientific journal Nature published an article about one. In the explanatory note, researchers stated: “An experiment that created a hybrid version of a bat coronavirus — one related to the virus that causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) — has triggered renewed debate over whether engineering lab variants of viruses with possible pandemic potential is worth the risks.” Q: What is the research and who were the authors of this 'chimeric virus'? The researchers examined the disease potential of a SARS-like virus, SHC014-CoV, which was identified as circulating in Chinese horseshoe bat populations. Using what they described as "SARS-CoV reverse genetics system", the reseachers said that they generated and characterised a "chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone." The researchers and their affiliations are the following:
Q: What's a key highlight of this study? One of the results highlighted in the study states: “…we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone." "The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV." "Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis.”
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