A surprising report suggests that COVID-19 may have first appeared in 2012

A coronavirus pandemic first appeared in the seafood market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in late December 2019. Since then, massive damage has occurred in 188 countries and territories, affecting more than 21.67 million people and killing more than 775,000 people worldwide.

Well, the report on the website Independent Science News According to the researchers, Jonathan Latham and Allison Wilson, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a virus that causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19), will hit the wet market in Wuhan in 2019. It suggests that it did not occur. But in a Chinese mine 1,000 miles away in 2012, workers fell ill with a mysterious pneumonia-like illness after being exposed to bats.

Bat feces exposure

In 2012, six people from the Mojiang mine in Yunnan experienced pneumonia-like illness after removing local bat dung. Overall, three men died after experiencing fever, cough, and other symptoms typical of COVID-19 patients.

Virologist Jonathan Latham and molecular biologist Allison Wilson, researchers at Ithaca’s Bioscience Resource Project, arrived at the findings after reviewing the paper by Chinese doctor Li Xu.

Dr. Xu was a miner’s doctor who became ill and sent his tissue sample to the Wuhan Virus Institute for examination.

“The evidence contained in it has led us to reconsider everything we thought we knew about the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also clearly separated at the mine in 2012. It has also theorized a plausible route by which an outbreak of disease could lead to a global pandemic in 2019,” Lathan and Wilson wrote in their report.

Miners were treated with similar treatments currently used for SARS-CoV-2 infections, including ventilation and the use of drugs such as antibiotics, anticoagulants, and steroids. In 2012, doctors also examined dengue, hepatitis, and other illnesses such as HIV to find out what caused the mysterious illness. We also consulted with many experts across the country, including Zhong Nanshan, a doctor who managed the outbreak of SARS in 2003.

“Distance meetings with Zhongnanshan are important. Latham and Wilson said the illness of the six miners was a major concern, and then likely a coronavirus like SARS. It means what was thought.”

The samples sent to the Wuhan Research Center were investigated in 2018 and were concluded to be from horseshoe bats.

Middle horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus affinis). Image credit: Binturong-tonoscarpe / Shutterstock

Similar to SARS-CoV-2

There are various reports on the origin of SARS-CoV-2, and some claim that the virus comes from natural sources such as wild animals, while others claim it to be an artificial virus.

However, Latham and Wilson said the origin of SARS-CoV-2 was based on a history of treatment in miners and their hospitals. SARS-CoV-2 contains a new furin site for the virus compared to its relatives. Theory can explain the origin of the polybasic furin cleavage site, which is a region of the virus Spike protein It binds more easily to the host enzyme furin, increasing the chance that the virus will spread to the body.

Another theory that has confused scientists about COVID-19 is the exceptional affinity of viral spike proteins for human receptors. This is surprising as the virus takes time to get used to infecting humans if it is of animal origin.

Finally, this theory also explains why the novel coronavirus targets the lungs. This is unusual for a coronavirus.

In another study published in the journal Emerging infectious disease, A team of researchers investigated a new henipa-like virus in rats in 2012 in China. The study included a report of six miners who were ill with unexplained and severe pneumonia.

The team investigated the presence of a novel zoonotic pathogen in its natural host in an abandoned cave and examined 20 bats, 9 rats, and 5 musk ewes from the mine for virus analysis. An anal swab sample was collected from. They found that the viruses obtained from the samples shared similar functions to the henipaviruses associated with paramyxoviruses.

At present, more than 21.67 million people are infected with coronavirus pandemics, with 5.4 million confirmed in the United States and the highest number reported. Since then, Brazil and India have had a staggering 3.34 million and 2.64 million, respectively.