Latest news with #MichaelWorobey
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New study retraces Covid's origins to bats in southwest China or northern Laos
The virus that causes Covid-19 followed the same evolutionary path as Sars, a coronavirus that jumped from bats to wildlife to people in the early 2000s, according to an analysis of their genomes. In a paper published in Cell journal, scientists compared the genomes of 250 coronaviruses to reconstruct how the pathogens evolved over time, potentially offering insights into how Covid-19 spilled into people – an unresolved question that's been thrust back into the spotlight since Donald Trump assumed office. The researchers found that both Sars viruses were circulating and changing inside bats in southern China and neighbouring countries for hundreds of thousands of years before emerging in humans. Bats have unusual immune systems which allow them to harbour coronaviruses, allowing them to mix and mutate into something new. By unpicking this 'recombination' process, the scientists were able to estimate when and where each of the two coronaviruses had emerged in bats. They found Sars was circulating in western China just one to two years before it jumped into humans in Guangdong, central China. Sars-Cov-2 followed an 'extremely similar' route, they say. It made its final recombination between 2012 and 2014 in bats in southwest China or northern Laos, five to seven years before sparking a human pandemic Wuhan. The researchers say it is striking that, in both instances, the virus was circulating in bats hundreds of miles from where humans were first infected. In the case of Sars, there is strong evidence that wildlife sold in wet markets bridged this geographical gap and carried the virus to humans. Researchers have previously established that the virus was present in palm civets and other wild mammals for sale in markets at the time of the first Sars outbreak in 2002. They concluded that it was the wildlife trade which transported the pathogens hundreds of miles, from bat caves to people. Prof Michael Worobey, head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona and a co-author of the paper, said that 'we're seeing exactly the same pattern with Sars-Cov-2'. Like Sars, Sars-Cov-2 evolved in bat caves hundreds of miles away from the spot humans were first infected. While the paper does not prove it was transported by the wildlife trade to the wet market around which the first human cases emerged in Wuhan, the authors said parallels between the two pandemics were too striking to be ignored. 'At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too extreme for a zoonotic origin,' said Prof Joel Wertheim, a professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine's division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health. 'This paper shows that it isn't unusual and is, in fact, extremely similar to the emergence of Sars-Cov-1 in 2002,' he said. The question of how Covid-19 emerged has long been contentious, but tensions have ratcheted up since President Trump assumed his second term in office. Last month the White House created a website called 'Lab Leak: The True Origin of Covid 19', which suggests the pandemic was caused by human error in a Wuhan lab facility. Beijing then resurfaced its own conspiracy theory – believed by many in China – that the US's own high security labs were to blame. Prof Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine who was not involved in the paper, praised the new research for showing how the two Sars viruses had evolved. But he added that it could not settle the lab v natural origins debate. 'I sit in favour of the Huannan market [analysis], mainly because of all the other evidence. This paper adds another bit of evidence to that pile,' he said. 'But it's not going to quash the lab leak [hypothesis], and it won't persuade Donald [Trump].' Prof Stuart Neil, head of the department of Infectious Diseases at King's College London, also said the paper 'can't fill the gap between the bats and the market'. But he added that the evolution and geography of Sars and Sars-Cov-2 described in the paper clearly showed that both were able to fully emerge of their own accord in nature and that there was no reason it could not happen again. 'What [the paper] reinforces is that you need to control and monitor the most likely flash points for zoonotic emergence,' he said. Yet some remain sceptical of the idea that the wildlife trade carried the Sars-CoV-2 to Wuhan as happened with Sars in the 2002 outbreak. 'It's a very sophisticated analysis of the evolutionary origins of Sars viruses in their natural reservoir, however the analysis leaves two big gaps,' said Prof Mark Woolhouse, a professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh. 'The story [for Covid] stops some years short of 2020, and it also leaves a very big gap in terms of space. 'I don't agree with the inference in the paper that the only plausible way that the virus could have gone from its natural habitat to Wuhan is through the wildlife trade. 'For me, there's no convincing evidence that the animals implicated in the early spread of Sars-Cov-2 [such as racoondogs] were farmed in the region where Sars-Cov-2 is thought to evolve. So for me, the most likely route that it got from one place to the other is via people,' Prof Woolhouse said. Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
West Australian
08-05-2025
- Health
- West Australian
Origin story of COVID virus rewritten, challenging lab leak theory
New research is rewriting the origin story of the virus that triggered the deadly COVID pandemic. Challenging the idea that the pandemic was caused by a lab leak, scientists now believe they know when and where the virus first emerged. COVID, which first emerged in humans in Wuhan in central China in December 2019, is calculated to have caused up to 36 million deaths worldwide. It's believe the virus that causes it left the area where it first emerged among animals in China or northern Laos several years before jumping across to humans 2700 kilometres away in Wuhan. While the primary host of the virus was a horseshoe bat, the virus was only able to travel the distance to where the human cases were first detected by 'hitching a ride' there with other animals via the wildlife trade, according to the research published in Cell . Researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine made the finding after analysing the family tree of virus strains SARS-CoV-1, which caused the SARS pandemic of 2002-2004, and the SARS-CoV-2, which caused the COVID pandemic — mapping their evolutionary history before they emerged in humans. 'We show that the original SARS-CoV-1 was circulating in Western China — just one to two years before the emergence of SARS in Guangdong Province, South Central China, and SARS-CoV-2 in Western China or Northern Laos — just five to seven years before the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan,' researcher Jonathan E. Pekar said. Given the distances that both viruses would have had to cover so quickly, it is highly improbable that they could have been carried there via the bats alone, they concluded. Much more likely, they say, is that they were transported there accidentally by wild animal traders via intermediate host animals. 'The viruses most closely related to the original SARS coronavirus were found in palm civets and raccoon dogs in southern China, hundreds of miles from the bat populations that were their original source,' said co-senior author Michael Worobey. 'For more than two decades the scientific community has concluded that the live-wildlife trade was how those hundreds of miles were covered. We're seeing exactly the same pattern with SARS-CoV-2.' The findings challenge the view that SARS-CoV-1 emerged naturally, but SARS-CoV2 was the result of a lab leak. 'At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too extreme for a zoonotic origin,' co-senior author Joel Wertheim said. 'This paper shows that it isn't unusual and is, in fact, extremely similar to the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 in 2002.' It's hoped that by continuing to sample wild bat populations for viruses, scientists will be able to prepare for and control future outbreaks. Debate about the origins of COVID-19 has raged since the pandemic took hold in 2019-2020. The CIA said in January the pandemic was more likely to have emerged from a lab in China than from nature, after the agency had for years said it could not reach a conclusion on the matter.
Perth Now
08-05-2025
- Health
- Perth Now
COVID shock as new findings challenge popular origin theory
New research is rewriting the origin story of the virus that triggered the deadly COVID pandemic. Challenging the idea that the pandemic was caused by a lab leak, scientists now believe they know when and where the virus first emerged. COVID, which first emerged in humans in Wuhan in central China in December 2019, is calculated to have caused up to 36 million deaths worldwide. It's believe the virus that causes it left the area where it first emerged among animals in China or northern Laos several years before jumping across to humans 2700 kilometres away in Wuhan. While the primary host of the virus was a horseshoe bat, the virus was only able to travel the distance to where the human cases were first detected by 'hitching a ride' there with other animals via the wildlife trade, according to the research published in Cell. Researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine made the finding after analysing the family tree of virus strains SARS-CoV-1, which caused the SARS pandemic of 2002-2004, and the SARS-CoV-2, which caused the COVID pandemic — mapping their evolutionary history before they emerged in humans. 'We show that the original SARS-CoV-1 was circulating in Western China — just one to two years before the emergence of SARS in Guangdong Province, South Central China, and SARS-CoV-2 in Western China or Northern Laos — just five to seven years before the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan,' researcher Jonathan E. Pekar said. Given the distances that both viruses would have had to cover so quickly, it is highly improbable that they could have been carried there via the bats alone, they concluded. Much more likely, they say, is that they were transported there accidentally by wild animal traders via intermediate host animals. 'The viruses most closely related to the original SARS coronavirus were found in palm civets and raccoon dogs in southern China, hundreds of miles from the bat populations that were their original source,' said co-senior author Michael Worobey. 'For more than two decades the scientific community has concluded that the live-wildlife trade was how those hundreds of miles were covered. We're seeing exactly the same pattern with SARS-CoV-2.' The findings challenge the view that SARS-CoV-1 emerged naturally, but SARS-CoV2 was the result of a lab leak. 'At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too extreme for a zoonotic origin,' co-senior author Joel Wertheim said. 'This paper shows that it isn't unusual and is, in fact, extremely similar to the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 in 2002.' It's hoped that by continuing to sample wild bat populations for viruses, scientists will be able to prepare for and control future outbreaks. Debate about the origins of COVID-19 has raged since the pandemic took hold in 2019-2020. The CIA said in January the pandemic was more likely to have emerged from a lab in China than from nature, after the agency had for years said it could not reach a conclusion on the matter.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New study suggests early COVID-19 strain spread from bats by wildlife trade
Above: Nexstar Media Wire video on the differences between COVID, RSV, strep and the flu. SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A recent study from an international team of researchers, including those from UC San Diego's School of Medicine, gives new credence to the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic spread naturally by way of wild mammal trade, as opposed to a lab leak. The study, which was published in the science journal Cell on Wednesday, examined the evolution of the COVID-19 virus — SARS-CoV-2 — and compared it to a coronavirus behind an earlier outbreak, the 2002 SARS pandemic. Using genome sequencing to map the histories of these and more than 250 coronaviruses, the scientists found a number parallels in the evolution of the viruses behind SARS and COVID that suggest the two shared a similar mode of dispersal. Scripps Health announces extension of contract with Anthem Blue Cross These findings, in their view, dispute the contested theory that COVID originated from a lab leak, even as the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans have ratcheted up promotion of supposition in recent months. The ancestors of both viruses, the study says, had circulated in horseshoe bats across much of China and other countries in southeast Asia for millennia, mutating as it interacted with other coronaviruses inside the cells of its host. This genetic mixing, which is called recombination, creates new variations of the virus, each more potent until it reaches the point where it can become a human pathogen. The closest ancestor identified by the study to SARS and COVID reached that tipping point only a few years before it was reported by humans — about one to two years before SARS was first detected in Guangdong Province and five to seven years before COVID emerged in Wuhan. However, the distance between the origin of this viral ancestor and where the pandemics began was too far to have been carried just by bats. Instead, the study says these viruses spilled over into other wild animals, which were unwittingly carried hundreds of miles by traders. The consensus among researchers of the earlier SARS pandemic has generally agreed this is how the virus reached Guangdong relatively quickly, most likely having hitched a ride to animals like palm civets or raccoon dogs commonly traded for their fur and meat. That patten of zoonotic spread, the new study argues, bolsters the plausibility that SARS-CoV2 reached Wuhan from southwest China in the same manner. 'For more than two decades the scientific community has concluded that the live-wildlife trade was how those hundreds of miles were covered,' said Dr. Michael Worobey, the head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona who served as a co-senior author on the study. 'We're seeing exactly the same pattern with SARS-CoV-2.' The researchers point to an earlier study they conducted that traced human transmission of COVID-19 back to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, where many wild mammals are sold by traders, as further evidence for natural zoonotic spillover. 'At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that the distance between Wuhan and the bat virus reservoir was too extreme for a zoonotic origin,' said Dr. Joel Wertheim, a professor of medicine at UCSD School of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health and a co-senior author of the study. Lawsuit filed against Aladdin Mediterranean Café amid ongoing salmonella investigation 'This paper shows that it isn't unusual and is, in fact, extremely similar to the emergence of SARS-CoV-1 in 2002,' he continued. That said, proponents of the lab leak theory have pointed to this distance as proof of their explanation of COVID's early spread, arguing it must have been human intervention in the form of scientists that transported the coronavirus from southwest China to Wuhan. However, no evidence has been provided that an earlier strain virus was in fact at the the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab at the center of the theory, before the pandemic. While researchers concede the debate on COVID's origins may in all likelihood remain unsettled, the study's authors say their findings remain notable, giving researchers additional insight into a possible future coronavirus outbreak. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
Boston Globe
06-02-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Second type of bird flu detected in US dairy cows
A version of the H5N1 bird flu virus known as B3.13 was confirmed in March after being introduced to cattle in late 2023, scientists said. It has infected more than 950 herds in 16 states. The new version, known as D1.1, was confirmed in Nevada cattle on Friday, according to USDA. It was detected in milk collected as part of a surveillance program launched in December. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Now we know why it's really important to test and continue testing,' said Angela Rasmussen, a virus expert at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, who helped identify the first spillover. Advertisement The D1.1 version of the virus was the type linked to the first U.S. death tied to bird flu and a severe illness in Canada. A person in Louisiana died in January after developing severe respiratory symptoms following contact with wild and backyard birds. In British Columbia, a teen girl was hospitalized for months with a virus traced to poultry. At least 67 people in the U.S. have been infected with bird flu, mostly those who work closely with dairy or cattle, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USDA officials said they would post genetic sequences and other information about the new form of the virus to a public repository later this week. Scientists said that would be key to understanding whether the spillover was a recent event or whether the virus has been circulating, perhaps widely, for longer. 'If this turns out to have been something that crossed into cattle a couple months ago, a couple months is a long time not to detect it,' said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who has studied the H5N1 virus in cattle. Advertisement He added that it's important for federal officials to share promptly information about a virus that has the potential to trigger a pandemic that could 'make COVID seem like a walk in the park.' 'It's a vital part of national security, global security, the well-being of people, of animals and of businesses in the U.S.,' Worobey added.
