Recently the Daily Mail posted the following story about how a barcode error may have contributed to the Covid variations.
The theory that Covid leaked from a laboratory was given fresh momentum last night after scientists studying soil samples in Antarctica stumbled upon traces of the virus that may have been manipulated in a Chinese research facility.
Rare coronavirus mutations from a sample processed in Shanghai at the beginning of the pandemic were found along with genetic material from hamsters and monkeys, which suggest the virus was being experimented on using either the animals themselves or their cells.
There is some debate among scientists about whether the changes predate the original Wuhan Covid but most virologists believe the mutations came after the coronavirus first jumped to humans.
Scientists made the discovery by accident while examining DNA from soil samples collected from Antarctica in late 2018 and early 2019 in a completely unrelated research project.
The samples had been sent to the company Sangon Biotech in Shanghai to be analyzed in December 2019, where a ‘barcode error’ saw them become contaminated with previously unseen coronavirus mutations.
The machine being used to analyze the samples has been known to suffer barcode reading errors – meaning samples from two different projects can be mixed together.
In this case, the Antarctic soil is believed to have been mixed with the DNA from lab monkeys or hamsters carrying coronavirus.
The Sangon facility is thought to be used by Chinese researchers, including those at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — the lab at the center of the accidental leak hypothesis.
Some experts said the new mutations bridge the gap between the original bat coronavirus and the one that jumped to humans — the missing piece of the puzzle that has escaped scientists for the past two years.
But others believe the contamination came from samples of China’s early Covid patients, who were announced in December 2019.
A third theory is that the genetic material is from other animal-borne coronaviruses that were circulating at the time or being experimented on by the Chinese.
The timing of the contamination is one of the key unknowns, but the Hungarian team who found the sample error say the virus could be the ancestor of the original Wuhan strain, if the mistake happened in December 2019.
If the samples were analyzed in early 2020, however, Chinese labs would have already built up a library of Covid test samples and the contamination may have occurred during experiments to learn more about the novel virus.
When the Hungarian researchers first reported the mistake, they said the samples were wiped from the genetic database by Chinese researchers – although they have since been reuploaded.
The latest findings, from Eotvos Lorand University and the University of Veterinary Medicine, both in Budapest, have been published online but not yet formally reviewed by other scientists.
They were looking at online DNA databases in January 2021 when they noticed the probable cross-contamination of the soil samples.
Virologist Shi Zheng-li works with her colleague in the P4 lab of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Hubei province – which is at the heart of the lab-leak theory. Nicknamed the ‘Bat Lady’, Zheng-li hunted down dozens of deadly Covid-like viruses in bat caves and studied them at the WIV
The Hungarian researchers traced the samples back to a study by the University of Science Technology of China in late 2018 and early 2019.
The Chinese project was looking at bacteria from penguins and saw the team collect a dozen soil samples on King George Island, Antarctica, during a three-week period.
Full Story Here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10497629/The-early-Covid-mutations-Chinese-lab-fuelling-leak-theory.html