Commentary: Lethal Pneumonia Cases in Mojiang Miners (2012) and the Mineshaft Could Provide Important Clues to the Origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Abstract

It has been more than 1 year since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020 (1). The evolutionary origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be partially traced to a lineage in bats; the closest known relative to SARS-CoV-2 (RaTG13) was found in a bat fecal sample taken from an abandoned mineshaft in Mojiang, China (2, 3). SARS-CoV-2 is proposed to have evolved via an intermediate host between bats and humans, or through natural selection in humans through direct contact with bats (2). Following a WHO-China investigation into the origins of the pandemic, a letter published in Science has pointed out analytical drawbacks of the report, that further investigatory efforts are needed to pinpoint the origin of SARS-CoV-2, and that both natural and laboratory spillover hypotheses must be taken seriously (4). Confirmation on the evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2 is critical for preventing future zoonotic outbreaks and pandemics. In October 2020, an article by Rahalkar and Bahulikar was published in Frontiers in Public Health (5) that raises questions about a 2012 lethal pneumonia outbreak and the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Almost 1 month after the publication of the paper in Frontiers in Public Health, more new details were published in Nature (3) by researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that seem to contradict the findings presented by Rahalkar and Bahulikar. The emergence of this information and of the possible contradictions that have been made since, present critical, global public health implications and outline the need for clarification. This situation gives insight into obligatory, ethical steps that are to be considered for discovering the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, and for preventing future pandemics.