After Covid-19 Data Is Deleted, NIH Reviews How Its Gene Archive Is Handled

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

WSJ NEWS EXCLUSIVE | HEALTH

After Covid-19 Data Is Deleted, NIH Reviews How Its Gene Archive Is Handled

Removal of coronavirus gene sequences that might hold clues to the pandemic’s origin sparked concern among scientists and U.S. senators

By Amy Dockser Marcus and Drew Hinshaw
https://twitter.com/AmyDMarcus
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https://twitter.com/drewhinshaw
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Sept. 13, 2021 11:04 am ET

The National Institutes of Health said it was reviewing the removal of genetic data about the Covid-19 virus from an agency-run archive after a scientist raised concerns about the episode earlier this summer.

The data—a series of gene sequences from coronavirus samples obtained from Covid-19 patients in Wuhan in January and February 2020—could hold clues about the origin of the pandemic. The sequences were deleted from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) last year at the request of one of the Wuhan University researchers who had originally provided them—a move that three Republican U.S. senators questioned in June in a sternly worded letter to NIH Director Francis Collins.

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Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-covid-19-data-is-deleted-nih-reviews-how-its-gene-archive-is-handled-11631545490

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The National Institutes of Health is reviewing its policies after the removal from an agency-run archive of gene data holding potential clues to the Covid-19 pandemic sparked concerns among scientists and U.S. senators

Link to tweet

[PSPS]

1. That was done on trump's watch, so it is automatically suspect.

Anything that would contradict trump's "chi-ee-na lab" conspiracy theory had to be deleted to prop up dear leader.

[harumph]

4. it actually sounds like the opposite situation.

[PSPS]

5. Read the article. "The sequences were deleted from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) last year"

As you may recall, trump was president last year.

[TallJohn]

8. Yep, and he probably appointed the head of that agency.

Another incompetent like Dejoy at the USPS.

It's good that President Biden is cleaning out the Trump holdovers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/andrew-saul-social-security-/2021/07/09/c18a34fa-df99-11eb-a501-0e69b5d012e5_story.html

[LiberalArkie]

2. I am still betting on the 2019 Military World Games being a critical event to the spreading of Covid

[harumph]

3. Gotta say that's suspicious.

Why would it be deleted upon the request of a foreign researcher? I bet forensics can retrieve it.

[PSPS]

6. Likely the request of a trump goon/toady, since it happened last year.

[NullTuples]

7. More info here (link)

[link:https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01731-3]

I have to question though - are there no audit/access trails? Backups of the data? It always seems so odd when data deletions occurred during the Trump administration as if a simply click of the delete key means something is gone forever. I and anyone I've worked with would be fired & blacklisted if we actually ran an IT shop like that.

[Hekate]

9. WTF