In late December 2019, Chinese scientists sent a critical set of genetic maps to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) database. The genetic data contained key information about a new virus that would soon cause a global pandemic. However, this early genetic map was not taken seriously and was not immediately released to the global health community. Although China submitted the data through the database on December 28, 2019, the United States requested additional information due to technical requirements, and Chinese scientists did not respond, which delayed the early global response to the new coronavirus.

The genetic code data actually described the virus that infected a 65-year-old male patient in Wuhan. Chinese health officials had not yet warned the public about the unidentified pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan. However, when the data was sent to the US GenBank database, the database requested additional technical details, which prevented the information from appearing in the eyes of the global scientific community on time. After the outbreak of the new coronavirus, an Australian and a Chinese virologist made the complete genetic map of the virus public online, which inspired global testing and vaccine development efforts and kicked off the response to the epidemic.

The incident was first disclosed in documents released recently, revealing more details about the early discovery of the new coronavirus. The documents were released by the U.S. House of Representatives Investigative Committee and show the initial efforts of Chinese scientists to share the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus globally. The documents also raise a thought-provoking question: How much did the Chinese government know before it officially acknowledged the epidemic? The incident also exposed the loopholes of the global public health system in monitoring potentially deadly pathogens.

The Chinese government has been claiming in the early days of the epidemic that it quickly shared the genetic information of the new coronavirus with the international community. However, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives believe that the documents show that China's response was not as fast as it said. At the same time, some scientists pointed out that although the relevant data was obtained at the end of December 2019, the United States failed to find the key information contained in the thousands of genetic submissions every day, further illustrating the shortcomings of the world in responding to sudden infectious diseases.

Delayed data release and defects in the detection mechanism

In December 2019, a genetic sequence describing the new coronavirus was submitted to the GenBank database managed by the U.S. NIH. However, due to the lack of additional technical details, this data was not processed and published. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the delay in publishing the data was because Chinese scientists did not respond to requests for additional information. GenBank did not receive any feedback from China after sending a request for correction, and then automatically deleted the sequence from the unpublished submission queue.

Scientists questioned that such data related to global public health was shelved due to technical details, which was obviously a flaw in system design. At the end of December 2019, when GenBank received the sequence, no one realized that it was the key data that caused the unknown pneumonia in Wuhan. Although the sequence was eventually released publicly by the GISAID database on January 12, 2020, the global health community lost precious response time in the critical two weeks.

Transmission and disclosure of new coronavirus genetic data

In the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, scientists around the world devoted a lot of energy to trying to identify the source of the virus and its transmission mechanism. However, when the viral gene sequence was first submitted to GenBank, the data failed to be successfully uploaded to the public database, raising global doubts about the monitoring capabilities of public health agencies. Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, pointed out that as early as the end of December 2019, the genetic map was enough to show that a new coronavirus was causing cases of unknown pneumonia in Wuhan. However, Chinese officials did not disclose the epidemic until January 2020.

Bloom also said that if these genetic data were available in advance, the development of vaccines might have been advanced by weeks. In the past few years, the world has made significant progress in vaccine development technology, but these advances cannot cover up the shortcomings of public health systems in early pathogen monitoring.

Controversy over China's early response and data disclosure

Documents show that as early as December 24, 2019, Chinese scientists had isolated the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus from a sample of an infected patient. The patient was a vendor in a large market in Wuhan, and the disease he suffered from was the new coronavirus that later spread widely. The Chinese research team completed the sequencing of the genetic data within four days of receiving the sample and tried to submit the data to the international database. Although this effort did not receive a timely response from the US database, it showed the early exploration of the virus by Chinese scientists.

Subsequently, a commercial laboratory in China also participated in the detection of the new virus and made relevant data public through GISAID in early January. Although China was cautious about the disclosure of research data in the early stage of the new coronavirus outbreak, scientists still pointed out that China's delay in sharing data may have slowed down the international community's response to a certain extent.

Challenges and reflections on the public health system

The delayed release of the new coronavirus gene sequence exposed the shortcomings of the US public health system in the response mechanism for sudden infectious diseases. Information in the GenBank database is usually only subject to technical review, rather than comprehensive scientific or public health review, which resulted in the failure of key data submitted in the early stage of the new coronavirus to receive sufficient attention. Jeremy Camille, a virologist at Louisiana State University in the United States, pointed out that the current gene database management system does not have a mechanism to prioritize the identification and dissemination of high-risk pathogens.

Experts believe that improving the automatic screening function of global public health monitoring systems and databases is a top priority. For example, if GenBank can automatically identify potentially deadly pathogens in massive data, the global response to emerging infectious diseases may be faster and more efficient. In addition, improved information sharing channels will also help enhance the ability of public health agencies to respond to sudden outbreaks.

Future improvement directions

In response to the shortcomings of the public health system exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists called for further strengthening of the management of genetic databases to ensure that new virus data can attract timely attention and spread rapidly. Automated screening systems, priority processing mechanisms for genetic data, and cross-border sharing of information will become important aspects of future public health system upgrades.

Through the lessons learned from this COVID-19 pandemic, global health officials and scientists have become more aware of the shortcomings in early identification of pathogens, and have attached greater importance to the importance of sharing and monitoring global disease data.