Covid-19 Origins: China’s Mojiang mine and its role in the origins of Covid-19
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2022
SATURDAY, MAY 28, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
China’s Mojiang mine and its role in the origins of Covid-19

Analysis

Reuters
09 June, 2021, 09:45 am
Last modified: 09 June, 2021, 01:28 pm

Related News

  • Keep the South China Sea free, Biden tells Navy graduates
  • China's external portfolio investment assets top 979B USD by end of 2021
  • China reports surplus in international goods trade
  • Hong Kong seeks to revive global banking status with major summit
  • Australia warns against Pacific security pact as China says interference will fail

China’s Mojiang mine and its role in the origins of Covid-19

The workers, ages 30 to 63, were scrubbing a copper seam clean of bat faeces in April 2012. Weeks later, they were admitted to a hospital in the provincial capital of Kunming with persistent coughs, fevers, head and chest pains and breathing difficulties. Three eventually died

Reuters
09 June, 2021, 09:45 am
Last modified: 09 June, 2021, 01:28 pm
People wearing face masks walk on a street market, following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China February 8, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song
People wearing face masks walk on a street market, following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China February 8, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song

Top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has urged China to release information about six labourers who fell ill after working in a mine in Yunnan province in 2012, and are now seen as a key part of efforts to find the origins of Covid-19.

The workers, ages 30 to 63, were scrubbing a copper seam clean of bat faeces in April 2012. Weeks later, they were admitted to a hospital in the provincial capital of Kunming with persistent coughs, fevers, head and chest pains and breathing difficulties. Three eventually died.

The mine is in Mojiang in southwest China, about 1,500 kilometres from Wuhan, where Covid-19 was first identified.

What Do We Know About the Six Mine Workers?

Though the full biographical details of the six workers have not been released, their surnames, ages and medical records were published in a 2013 thesis written by a Kunming Medical University postgraduate student named Li Xu.

Li's study, still available on China's scientific paper archive at cnki.net, examines each patient's symptoms and concludes they were victims of a "SARS-like" coronavirus contracted from horseshoe bats.

Scientists returning to the mine at the end of 2012 found samples of a pathogen that came to be known as the "Mojiang virus", found in rats and unrelated to SARS-CoV-2. Subsequent research was unable to confirm whether it caused the miners' illness.

According to the Wuhan Institute of Virology's Shi Zhengli, China's top bat coronavirus researcher, the workers' pneumonia-like symptoms were caused by a fungal infection. Shi and her team also said in research published last November that they had retested 13 serum samples from four of the patients and found no sign they had been infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Why Are The Cases In The Public Eye?

Since the middle of last year, Li's postgraduate thesis has been circulated online as purported evidence that a coronavirus very similar to SARS-CoV-2 could have been infecting humans as early as 2012.

Some also believe the paper provides circumstantial evidence for broader allegations that WIV had captured, studied and conducted "gain of function" experiments on viruses found in the mine, including RaTG13.

First identified in 2016, RaTG13 shares 96.2% of its genome with SARS-CoV-2, according to a paper released by Shi and other researchers early in February 2020, just weeks after the first Covid-19 cases had been identified in Wuhan.

What Other Viruses Were Found In The Mine?

From 2012 to 2015, WIV researchers identified as many as 293 coronaviruses in and around the mine.

The institute in November 2020 disclosed the existence of eight other "SARS-type" coronavirus samples taken from the site.

In a preprint last month, Shi and other researchers said none of the eight was a closer match to SARS-CoV-2 than RaTG13. Crucially, none of them possessed the key receptor binding domain that allows SARS-CoV-2 to infect humans so efficiently.

The paper concluded that "the experimental evidence cannot support" claims that SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from the lab, and called for "more systematic and longitudinal sampling of bats, pangolins or other possible intermediate animals" to better understand where the pandemic originated.

Coronavirus chronicle / Top News / World+Biz

china / Mojiang mine / Covid-19 Origins

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Plucking the poultry: New tax regime for the sector on cards
    Plucking the poultry: New tax regime for the sector on cards
  • Dr Zahid Hussain. Illustration: TBS
    The economics of remittance subsidy
  • Starlink is ideal in rural or remote locations where internet access has been unreliable or completely unavailable. Photo: SpaceX
    Time for a reality check: How viable is Starlink in Bangladesh?

MOST VIEWED

  • Sketch: TBS
    ‘Government officials tend to show exaggerated food production data to make the higher-ups happy’
  • Dr Zahid Hussain. Illustration: TBS
    The economics of remittance subsidy
  • Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose for a photo in Tokyo on May 24. ZHANG XIAOYOU - POOL/GETTY IMAGES/Foreign Policy
    The Quad looks west
  • Temperatures in the gritty New Delhi locality of Mungeshpur averaged 1.4° Celsius higher so far this month than in the suburban enclave of Safdarjung, IMD data shows. Photo: Bloomberg
    India's record heatwave drives temperature gap between rich and poor
  • Pakistan finds itself in political turmoil again as Imran Khan pushes for immediate general elections. Photo: Reuters
    Supreme Court of Pakistan: Now a candle in the dark
  • Photo: Bloomberg
    Bigger food crisis can be averted if Asia remembers not to panic

Related News

  • Keep the South China Sea free, Biden tells Navy graduates
  • China's external portfolio investment assets top 979B USD by end of 2021
  • China reports surplus in international goods trade
  • Hong Kong seeks to revive global banking status with major summit
  • Australia warns against Pacific security pact as China says interference will fail

Features

Starlink is ideal in rural or remote locations where internet access has been unreliable or completely unavailable. Photo: SpaceX

Time for a reality check: How viable is Starlink in Bangladesh?

25m | Panorama
Car myths that really need to go away

Car myths that really need to go away

30m | Wheels
The taboo of dining out alone

The taboo of dining out alone

21h | Food
The perfect time for newborn photography is between the first five and 14 days when a baby’s bones are the most malleable for posing. Photo: Courtesy

Is there a market for newborn photography in the country? Studio Picturerific says yes

22h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Photo: TBS

Education at Tk1 changing lives, making dreams come true

41m | Videos
Photo: TBS

An electricity bill that connects Brahmanbaria with Tripura

46m | Videos
Chapped lips in summer, why?

Chapped lips in summer, why?

51m | Videos
Fear of food crisis sets across the globe

Fear of food crisis sets across the globe

17h | Videos

Most Read

1
Bangladesh at risk of losing ownership of Banglar Samriddhi
Bangladesh

Bangladesh at risk of losing ownership of Banglar Samriddhi

2
Corporates go cashless…tax cut on cards
NBR

Corporates go cashless…tax cut on cards

3
Photo: Courtesy
Panorama

Misfit Technologies: A Singaporean startup rooted firmly in Bangladesh

4
Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge
Bangladesh

Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge

5
British International Investment (BII) CEO Nick O’Donohoe. Illustration: TBS
Economy

BII to invest $450m in Bangladesh in 5 years

6
Representational image. Picture: Pixabay
Economy

Govt raises regulatory duty to discourage imports of 130 products

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab