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2020-04-16 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
French found 4 additional amino acids in coronavirus, enhancing transmission
[World Tribune] The Wuhan coronavirus has four more amino acids than other coronaviruses, making its transmission easier, according to a French research team which examined the gene sequence of COVID-19.

The research team’s findings have led some in the research community to speculate about whether it is "synthetic" and whether China’s scientists intended to develop a virus more difficult to contain than SARS.

Such alarming conjecture is impossible to test without original reports and data which China continues to withhold.

National Taiwan University (NTU) public health researcher Fang Chi-tai, who cited the research team’s findings, said that given China’s poor track record with lab safety management the virus is likely to have escaped from a Chinese facility, possibly the Wuhan Institute of Virology which is located near the original epicenter of the outbreak.

Fang said he had heard that many U.S. and Europe-based researchers had asserted that the virus was linked to the institute, adding this assertion was highly possible as the facility’s biosafety level 4 laboratory houses samples of SARS, Ebola and other deadly viruses.

Analyses of COVID-19, Fang said, have shown that is has a 96 percent genetic similarity with an RaTG13 bat virus at the institute.

While viruses need to be at least 99 percent similar to call them "the same," it is the differences in particular that have led researchers to speculate that COVID-19 was manufactured by modifying RaTG13, Fang said, according to a Taipei Times report.

Mutations of viruses that occur naturally only result in small, singular changes, Fang said, adding that one would not normally see a naturally mutated virus suddenly take on four amino acids.

While such a large mutation is not impossible, it is highly unlikely, Fang said.

However, only an internal administrative review at the institute could rule out whether the virus was manufactured there, Fang said, adding that such an investigation would require access to lab records, which is unlikely to happen in communist China.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-16 07:42|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ]  Top

#1 Perhaps mother nature is not to blame:

Journal of Virology - Amino Acid Changes in the Influenza A Virus PA Protein That Attenuate Avian H5N1 Viruses in Mammals
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-16 08:12||   2020-04-16 08:12|| Front Page Top

#2 Synthetic? Occam would tend to agree.
Posted by Lex 2020-04-16 08:17||   2020-04-16 08:17|| Front Page Top

#3 #1 Influenza and corona viruses are two different beasts, Besoeker.

That being said, spontaneous mutations what add amino acids to proteins are very unlikely - not without sexual recombination.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-04-16 08:25||   2020-04-16 08:25|| Front Page Top

#4 Not been an abundance of public discussion about a vaccine lately, I wonder why ?

'Significant' coronavirus mutation discovered, could make vaccine search 'futile,' study says.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-16 08:32||   2020-04-16 08:32|| Front Page Top

#5 Ref #3: Influenza and corona viruses are two different beasts...

Which host nearly identical symptoms and human to human transmission protocols. As far as "spontaneous mutations"...please see graphic.

I'm certainly no microbiologist. All I know is what I read in the papers.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-16 08:42||   2020-04-16 08:42|| Front Page Top

#6 Besoeker, dogs & cats eat meat - but they're not the same.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-04-16 09:01||   2020-04-16 09:01|| Front Page Top

#7 /\ Many thanks! The feline-canine quandary, it's been a lingering question in my mind for many years.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-04-16 09:08||   2020-04-16 09:08|| Front Page Top

#8 Imagine if there were a canine flu. Ugh.
Posted by Clem 2020-04-16 09:12||   2020-04-16 09:12|| Front Page Top

#9 not without sexual recombination.

Viruses have sex? Just asking.
Posted by Woodrow 2020-04-16 09:18||   2020-04-16 09:18|| Front Page Top

#10 ^Pérez-Losada, M., Arenas, M., Galán, J. C., Palero, F., & González-Candelas, F. (2015). Recombination in viruses: mechanisms, methods of study, and evolutionary consequences. Infection, Genetics and Evolution, 30, 296-307.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-04-16 09:20||   2020-04-16 09:20|| Front Page Top

#11 From the link in #4 - Despite the ominous discovery, the researchers were also able to discover that SARS-CoV-2 "has a much lower mutation rate and genetic diversity" than severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which appeared in China in 2002.
Posted by Bobby 2020-04-16 09:40||   2020-04-16 09:40|| Front Page Top

#12 Wear protection!
Posted by Zebulon Grundy1140 2020-04-16 10:31||   2020-04-16 10:31|| Front Page Top

#13 "Despite that, we found the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 is particularly more conserved, we identified a mutation that leads to weaker receptor binding capability, which concerns a SARS-CoV-2 sample collected on 27th January 2020 from India."

In other words, less infectious. Still not sanguine about a vaccine any time soon.
Posted by Iblis 2020-04-16 10:51||   2020-04-16 10:51|| Front Page Top

#14 ^You worry whether vaccine to seasonal flu works?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-04-16 11:15||   2020-04-16 11:15|| Front Page Top

#15 

Cats aren't as indifferent to owners as they seem: Study shows they get separation anxiety when we leave them alone just like dogs
Posted by Skidmark 2020-04-16 12:07||   2020-04-16 12:07|| Front Page Top

#16 "^You worry whether vaccine to seasonal flu works?"

What's the average hit rate on this? 40%? I realize that's due to other issues though. No. I worry that the vaccine candidates won't generate sufficient antibodies, which instead of providing immunity can make the disease worse.

Don't get me wrong, I believe there will be a vaccine. Too much money to be had. I just have doubts about its ultimate utility. At least one vaccine candidate is an attenuated version of the virus, which you'd want many years to test for safety before even thinking about whether or not it works.
Posted by Iblis 2020-04-16 12:25||   2020-04-16 12:25|| Front Page Top

#17 Look Iblis, the vaccine will be based on the spike protein. If the later mutates, the vaccine won't work. However, the lethality of Xi's Gift is in the un-mutated spike protein.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-04-16 12:31||   2020-04-16 12:31|| Front Page Top

#18 ^^You're like asking "what if he shoots me with unloaded gun?".
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-04-16 12:32||   2020-04-16 12:32|| Front Page Top

#19 Dunno. Clearly we don't have vaccines for everything. Been hearing that some vaccines are harder than others, and that this could be one of the hard ones. Guess we'll see.
Posted by Iblis 2020-04-16 13:43||   2020-04-16 13:43|| Front Page Top

#20 Maybe I'll go read Kurt's book Wildfire. It's about an engineered virus gone bat-shit crazy. It may not be scientific, but it's a page-turner.
Posted by Bobby 2020-04-16 14:59||   2020-04-16 14:59|| Front Page Top

#21 Canine influenza for Clem from the CDC. It thus far does not transfer to people:

Key Facts about Canine Influenza (Dog Flu)
Posted by trailing wife 2020-04-16 16:41||   2020-04-16 16:41|| Front Page Top

#22 96% match with bat virus isn’t even close.

The Chinese are responsible for finding samples from last year that fill in the gap.

It’s very clear they are suppressing this and apparently they have even destroyed samples.

Ockham says: it was created in the Wuhan lab.
Posted by KBK 2020-04-16 20:41||   2020-04-16 20:41|| Front Page Top

#23 Thanks much, trailing wife. I also remember some stories within the past year or so about humans getting sick (and dying, I think) after a dog licked them.
Posted by Clem 2020-04-16 20:51||   2020-04-16 20:51|| Front Page Top

#24 No, that was Joe Biden licking ...I think
Posted by Frank G 2020-04-16 21:15||   2020-04-16 21:15|| Front Page Top

#25 poor Joe (sniff)
Posted by Lex 2020-04-16 21:20||   2020-04-16 21:20|| Front Page Top

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