Deleted data suggests Covid cover-up by China

China deleted a data set containing Covid sequences from the early stages of the epidemic that could have provided vital clues about the origins of the virus, a new study has claimed.

The research paper, “Recovery of deleted deep sequencing data sheds more light on the early Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 epidemic”, was released by Professor Jesse Bloom, an associate professor at the Seattle-based Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center on Wednesday.

The report, which has not yet been peer reviewed, alleges that a data set containing SARS-CoV-2 sequences from early in the Wuhan epidemic were deleted from the National Institute of Health’s Sequence Read Archive.

In the abstract of the report, Bloom explains how he recovered the deleted files from the Google Cloud and reconstructed partial sequences of 13 early epidemic viruses.

He finds there is no plausible reason for the missing files that were deleted and said the most likely explanation is that China deleted the material to “obscure their existence”.

He said: “The fact that such an informative data set was deleted has implications beyond those gleaned directly from the recovered sequences. Samples from early outpatients in Wuhan are a gold mine for anyone seeking to understand the spread of the virus.”

Bloom’s investigation also suggests that the early Covid viruses investigated by studies, including by the World Health Organisation, are not fully representative of the virus strains circulating in Wuhan during the early months of the pandemic.

The implication is that SARS-Cov-2 was circulating in Wuhan before the December outbreak at the seafood market in Huanan, which would contradict the Chinese government’s timeline.

Professor Fracois Balloux, director of UCL Genetics Institute, tweeted: “The revelation that Chinese genome sequences from early on in the pandemic got deleted makes no difference about our understanding of the pandemic’s timeline at this stage. Though, I suspect it will dramatically change the mood in the scientific community. Brace yourself.”