Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40488574›Full record

ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2025

A Critical Reexamination of Recovered SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing Data.

Florence Débarre, Zach Hensel

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Florence DébarreInstitute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, CNRS UMR 7618, Sorbonne Université, UPEC, IRD, INRAE, Paris, France.ORCID 0000-0003-2497-833X
Zach HenselInstituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Av. da República, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal.ORCID 0000-0002-4348-6229

Funding

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia UIDB/04612/2020Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia UIDP/04612/2020
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In 2021, Jesse Bloom published a study addressing why the earliest SARS-CoV-2 sequences in Wuhan from late December 2019 were not those most similar to viruses sampled in bats. The study concluded that recovered partial sequences from Wuhan and annotation of Wuhan links for other sequences increased support for one genotype as the progenitor of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, we show that the collection date for the recovered sequences was January 30, 2020, later than that of hundreds of other SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Mutations in these sequences also exhibit diversity consistent with SARS-CoV-2 sequences collected in late January 2020. Furthermore, we found that Wuhan exposure history was common for early samples, so Bloom's annotation for a single familial cluster does not support that an early genotype was undersampled in Wuhan. Both the recovered partial sequences and additional annotation align with contemporaneous data rather than increase support for a progenitor. Our findings clarify the significance of the recovered sequences and are supported by additional data and analysis published since mid-2021.

Indexed as

Genome, ViralSARS-CoV-2AnimalsChinaChiropteraDatasets as TopicGenotypeHumansRNA, ViralSequence Analysis, RNARNA, ViralCOVID-19data recoveryepidemiologymetadataphylogeneticsSARS-CoV-2sequence read archive

Identifiers

PMID40488574
PMCPMC12147218

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.