A Different Perspective on the COVID-19 Pandemic: Origin of the Outbreak (Part 1)

Exp Clin Transplant. 2024 Jan;22(Suppl 2):1-14. doi: 10.6002/ect.2023.0074.ABSTRACTIn December 2019, an outbreak caused by novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) started in Wuhan, China. After extensive speculation about a causative agent, a novel betacoronavirus, in the same family as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, was identified via next-generation sequencing from samples received from several pneumonia patients. Ribonucleic acid extracted from the patient's bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was used as a template to clone and sequence the genome of SARS-CoV-2. Shortly after, the World Health Organization announced a worldwide pandemic. However, later reports revealed that the COVID-19 pathogen has a genetic footprint that had never been observed in natural coronavirus, suggesting a "gain of function virus" that might have been engineered in a laboratory. Clear conclusions about the outbreak's origins are still lacking. Theories regarding most probable wildlife animal reservoir for the SARS-CoV-2 have been scientifically shaky. Exactly how the virus jumped from wild animals to humans remains a mystery. Onging debate coalesces around 2 competing theories: laboratory accidental versus intentional escape scenario of a genetically engineered virus versus zoonotic emergence. Within a year after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna published their 2-month duration follow-up mRNA vaccine trial results. Later reports revealed a rapidly declining vaccineinduced immuni...
Source: Experimental and Clinical Transplantation : official journal of the Middle East Society for Organ Transplantation - Category: Transplant Surgery Authors: Source Type: research