The genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for causing Covid-19, was submitted to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) database two weeks prior to its release by the Chinese government, according to documents shared with US lawmakers and disclosed on Wednesday.
While the sequence itself doesn’t reveal the origin of the coronavirus, it contradicts the Chinese government’s assertions regarding its knowledge of the information. An expert told CNN that this discrepancy could have led to critical delays in the development of a vaccine against the virus.
On December 28, 2019, virologist Dr. Lili Ren from the Institute of Pathogen Biology at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College submitted the genetic sequence to GenBank, a repository managed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which is part of the US National Institutes of Health. However, the submission was deemed incomplete and lacking necessary information for publication. Despite a resubmission request sent to Dr. Ren, the additional information was never received, and the sequence was never made publicly available on GenBank.
Surprisingly, a different submission of a genetic sequence “nearly identical” to Dr. Ren’s was published on GenBank on January 12, 2020, just one day after the World Health Organization acknowledged receiving the sequence from China.
The investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and others, aims to explore the origins of Covid-19 and enhance the nation’s biosafety practices for future pandemics. The committee received the new information nearly two months after notifying the NIH of their intent to issue subpoenas for relevant documents.
Virologist Dr. Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center analyzed Dr. Ren’s submission and argued that it disproves the Chinese government’s claim that the causative agent of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak hadn’t been identified in early January 2020. He emphasized that the earlier release of this information could have accelerated vaccine production, potentially saving lives.
