Coronavirus outbreak in France did not come directly from China, gene-tracing scientists say

[Beast]

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/sci...break-france-did-not-come-directly-china-gene


China / Science
Coronavirus outbreak in France did not come directly from China, gene-tracing scientists say

• 
  
  
  • Researchers conclude that the virus was circulating undetected in France in February
  • Findings highlight the difficulties governments face in tracing the source of coronavirus outbreaks

Topic | Coronavirus outbreak


Stephen Chen in Beijing
Published: 10:15pm, 28 Apr, 2020



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The
coronavirus outbreak
in
France
was not caused by cases imported from China, but from a locally circulating strain of unknown origin, according to a new study by French scientists at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.
Genetic analysis showed that the dominant types of the viral strains in France belonged to a clade – or group with a common ancestor – that did not come from China or Italy, the earliest hotspot in Europe.

“The French outbreak has been mainly seeded by one or several variants of this clade … we can infer that the virus was silently circulating in France in February,” said researchers led by Dr Sylvie van der Werf and Etienne Simon-Loriere in a non-peer reviewed paper released on bioRxiv.org last week.

The Covid-19 pandemic has infected more than 128,000 people in France and caused more than 23,000 deaths.

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France detected the virus in late January, before any other country in Europe. A few patients with a travel history that included China’s Hubei province were sampled on January 24 and tested positive.

The Covid-19 pandemic has infected more than 128,000 people in France and caused more than 23,000 deaths. Photo: AFP
The French government took quick and decisive measures to trace contacts of the infected people and shut down the chance of further infection.


However, these strains were not found in patients tested after the initial imported cases, suggesting “the quarantine imposed on the initial Covid-19 cases in France appears to have prevented local transmission”, the researchers said.

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The Pasteur institute collected samples from more than 90 other patients across France and found the strains all came from one genetic line. Strains following this unique path of evolution had so far only been detected in Europe and the Americas.

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View attachment 628106
The earliest sample in the French clade was collected on February 19 from a patient who had no history of travel and no known contact with returned travellers.


Several patients had recently travelled to other European countries, the United Arab Emirates, Madagascar and Egypt but there was no direct evidence that they contracted the disease in these destinations.

Read more


Is this the next big hotspot for the ‘little flu’?

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Europe takes first steps to reopening amid threat of virus outbreaks

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View attachment 628103
China praises France for ‘independent’ diplomacy amid virus backlash

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View attachment 628104
Covid-19 twice as contagious as previously thought, study finds

To the researchers’ surprise, some of the later strains collected were genetically older – or closer to the ancestral root – than the first sample in this clade.

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A possible explanation, according to the authors, was that local transmission had been occurring in France for some time without being detected by health authorities.

The French government may have missed detecting the transmission. According to the researchers, a large proportion of those patients might have had mild symptoms or none at all.

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The researchers also found that three sequences later sampled in Algeria were closely related to those in France, suggesting that travellers from France might have introduced the virus to the African country and caused an outbreak.

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29 Apr 2020
View attachment 628105
Benjamin Neuman, professor and chair of biological sciences with the Texas A&M University-Texarkana, said the French strains might have come from Belgium, where some sequences most closely related to the original strain from China were clustered.

“Since the earliest European strains of [the coronavirus] Sars-CoV-2 seem to be associated with Belgium, the idea that the virus spread from Belgium to both Italy and France at around the same time seems plausible, as this paper contends,” he said.

France is the latest in a growing number of countries and areas where no direct link between China and local outbreaks could be established.

The dominant strains in Russia and Australia, for instance, came from Europe and the United States, respectively, according to some studies.

These findings have drawn fire from some politicians who have tried to deflect domestic anger over their handling of the crisis by blaming China.

US President Donald Trump lashed out on social media after two separate teams in the US found the
strains devastating New York came from Europe
.
Is this the next big hotspot for the ‘little flu’?
28 Apr 2020
View attachment 628107
“So now the Fake News @nytimes is tracing the CoronaVirus origins back to Europe, NOT China. This is a first!” he tweeted on April 11, referring to a story about the studies in the The New York Times’ science section.

The findings also highlight the difficulties governments face in tracing the source of coronavirus outbreaks.

Less-developed countries may never know where their strains came from due to inadequate testing and sequencing capability.

India
, for example, has released the genetic sequence of fewer than 40 samples to the public so far, a small number considering its huge population.
Most of the strains sampled in 35 early cases came from clades that could be traced to Italy and Iran, with only a few from China, according to a recent study. But researchers were not able to track further because of the lack of data.

A scientist on the study, Dr Mukesh Thakur, of the Zoological Survey of India, said it was too early to rule out China as the source of outbreaks in India because the number of samples at hand was limited.

A 20-year-old student studying medicine in Wuhan, for instance, might have come in contact with many people on the way home before she was tested positive on January 30.

Thakur said local media reported that the Indian government quarantined 3,500 people possibly linked to three positive cases imported from Wuhan.

“God knows how many of them tested positive in the subsequent stages,” Thakur said in an email response to the Post’s queries on Tuesday.

Some prominent scientists, including Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health, said the virus might have been spreading quietly in humans for years, or even decades, without causing a detectable outbreak.

 

[Nan Yang]

Why so difficult to say it came from United States.

 

[UKBengali]

This does not prove that the virus did not originate in China.

 

[Menthol]

Just as I thought.

The spread of coronavirus is actually quite suspicious.

Many countries already closed the flight from China and all the passengers from China were well checked.


China neighbors like Japan, South Korea, and ASEAN reported lower spread at the time.

But in USA and Europe it was exploding like crazy.

Even the number of infected people far higher than those in Wuhan in just 3 months.


If there a huge pandemic in USA and Europe, East Asia and ASEAN should be equally large, if not larger.

Because of their closer position as China's neighbors.


Just as I said before, there must be another source of coronavirus.

It's like you close the front door, but you forget to close the backdoor.

This coronavirus took many countries by surprise.


In Indonesia from what I remember back then.

Many of our first infection cases were related to European tourists and local people who just back home from Europe and Middle East.

I don't recall any news about Chinese tourists was infected with coronavirus, or local people who just visited China.

But maybe I'm wrong since maybe I missed some news.

 

[Beast]

This does not prove that the virus did not originate in China.

How do you prove it originate from China? Just becos China brave enough to declare a new epidemic?

 

[UKBengali]

How do you prove it originate from China?

All evidence points to China.

First mass proven outbreak was in China.

 

[Pakistani Fighter]

@Vergennes

 

[Beast]

All evidence points to China.

First mass proven outbreak was in China.

Nonsense.

If country A has new virus and they keep quiet, same as country B then country C brave enough to tell the world a new virus outbreak. So country C shall be considered the origin of the new virus? Is that your logic?

And what is this thread for? Isnt this thread article already prove you wrong? Same as Peter Foster scientist study from UK cambridge proves otherwise. His finding is supported by Taiwanese and Japanese scientist.

 

[UKBengali]

Nonsense.

If country A has new virus and they keep quiet, same as country B then country C brave enough to tell the world a new virus outbreak. So country C shall be considered the origin of the new virus? Is that your logic?

And what is this thread for? Isnt this thread article already prove you wrong? Same as Peter Foster scientist study from UK cambridge proves otherwise. His finding is supported by Taiwanese and Japanese scientist.

Massive flaw in your logic.

Say USA had the outbreak first then where is the millions of deaths so far from Covid-19?

USA did not implement any "social distancing' measures before March this year.

 

[T-123456]

All evidence points to China.

First mass proven outbreak was in China.

They can deny threathen governments and come up with propaganda all they want,nobody buys it.
The Corona virus originated from Wuhan China,a simple fact,known all over the world.

 

[UKBengali]

They can deny threathen governments and come up with propaganda all they want,nobody buys it.
The Corona virus originated from Wuhan China,a simple fact,known all over the world.

Almost certainly that is the case.

 

[Beast]

Massive flaw in your logic.

Say USA had the outbreak first then where is the millions of deaths so far from Covid-19?

USA did not implement any "social distancing' measures before March this year.

LOL..

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...vid-19-began-us-january-mistaken-flu-12668646

You didnt know US put all the death of covid-19 under normal flu earlier? Is has already started early Jan 2020 and US refused to do mass testing during that time. Now the public rush in hospital becos the US public panic for covid-19 and large number of patient rush to hospital to create the so called many death. Before that, there are large number of strange pneumonia death at US home classify under seasonal flu.

They can deny threathen governments and come up with propaganda all they want,nobody buys it.
The Corona virus originated from Wuhan China,a simple fact,known all over the world.

As long as fact are presented, your opinion counts zero. Propangada? I guess we must have bribe the french scientist or British?

 

[UKBengali]

LOL..

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...vid-19-began-us-january-mistaken-flu-12668646

You didnt know US put all the death of covid-19 under normal flu earlier? Is has already started early Jan 2020 and US refused to do mass testing during that time. Now the public rush in hospital becos the US public panic for covid-19 and large number of patient rush to hospital to create the so called many death. Before that, there are large number of strange pneumonia death at US home classify under seasonal flu.

No as too many people would have died to have covered it up as the "flu".
Corona is far too infectious and spreads like wildfire unless "social distancing" measures are quickly put in place.
Also the time between first infection and death for some patients is only 3-4 weeks

Also Covid-19 mainly attacks the lungs and a lot of patients suffocate to death, which is not seen that often with flu viruses.
It would have been noticed that this phenomenon is not just the "flu"

Now can we stop this ridiculous propaganda that no-one apart from China and maybe a few others believe?

Majority of the world is frankly getting tired with Chinese attempts to deflect the blame onto others. You can help yourself better by coming clean over this.

 

[Menthol]

Only science can tell the origins of the virus.

But this coronavirus case is very interesting.

No as too many people would have died to have covered it up as the "flu".
Corona is far too infectious and spreads like wildfire unless "social distancing" measures are quickly put in place.
Also the time between first infection and death for some patients is only 3-4 weeks

Also Covid-19 mainly attacks the lungs and a lot of patients suffocate to death, which is not seen that often with flu viruses.
It would have been noticed that this phenomenon is not just the "flu"

Now can we stop this ridiculous propaganda that no-one apart from China and maybe a few others believe?

Majority of the world is frankly getting tired with Chinese attempts to deflect the blame onto others. You can help yourself better by coming clean over this.

It's not flu.

It's a respiratory disease.

The same with SARS and MERS.

 

[Beast]

No as too many people would have died to have covered it up as the "flu".
Corona is far too infectious and spreads like wildfire unless "social distancing" measures are quickly put in place.
Also the time between first infection and death for some patients is only 3-4 weeks

Also Covid-19 mainly attacks the lungs and a lot of patients suffocate to death, which is not seen that often with flu viruses.
It would have been noticed that this phenomenon is not just the "flu"

Now can we stop this ridiculous propaganda that no-one apart from China and maybe a few others believe?

Majority of the world is frankly getting tired with Chinese attempts to deflect the blame onto others. You can help yourself better by coming clean over this.

You are avoiding obvious point. Even CDC admit there are many strange cases US flu death with pneumonia which they didint test fot covid-19.

Remember Peter Forster mention there are 3 strain of Covid-19? USA - A, China - B and Europe - C. It could be the strain from US come to China and it mutated into a more aggressive B before passing to Europe and mutuated into C which subsequently pass back to US.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/sci...navirus-comes-three-variants-researchers-find

• Types A, B and C are all derived from the pathogen first found in bats but have evolved in different ways, according to a report by British and German geneticists
• Findings show the virus has become well adapted to human transmission and mutates as it spreads, Chinese epidemiologist says