More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Advisers to the World Health Organization have urged China to release all information related to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic after new findings were briefly shared on an international database used to track pathogens.
New sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as additional genomic data based on samples taken from a live animal market in Wuhan, China in 2020 were briefly uploaded to the open access GISAID database by Chinese scientists earlier this year, allowing them to be viewed by researchers in other countries, according to a Saturday statement from the WHO's Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO).
The sequences suggested that raccoon dogs were present in the market and may have also been infected by the coronavirus, providing a new clue in the chain of transmission that eventually reached humans, according to the WHO.
Access to the information was subsequently restricted “apparently to allow further data updates” by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the statement added.
WHO officials discussed the matter with Chinese colleagues, who explained that the new data were intended to be used to update a preprint study from 2022. China's CDC plans to re-submit the paper to the scientific journal Nature for publication, according to the statement.
WHO officials say such information, while not conclusive, represents a new lead into the investigation of COVID-19's origins and should have been shared immediately.
"These data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.
"These data could have – and should have – been shared three years ago."
"We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data, and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results," he said.
SAGO was tasked by the WHO to continue to investigate the origins of the pandemic that has killed nearly seven million people worldwide.
The Chinese CDC did not immediately respond to the WHO's latest statement.
When asked by Reuters why the sequences were not uploaded before, George Gao, professor at the Institute of Microbiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former head of the Chinese CDC, said the data uploaded were "nothing new."
He added that GISAID, the Munich-based pathogen database, took down the sequences, not the Chinese scientists, and that he was in contact with WHO.
It's "too early for any conclusion," he added in an emailed statement. "All this must be left for scientists to work on, NOT for journalists or public. We are eager to know the answer."
A spokesperson for GISAID said it does not take down data. They said the sequences had been “recalled” and “are currently being updated with newer and additional data as part of a manuscript currently under review”.
The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was shut down by Chinese authorities after the novel coronavirus emerged in the city in late 2019. The market has since been a focus of study of whether the virus had infected several other species before jumping to humans.
The WHO and other scientists have also said they cannot rule out the possibility that the virus emerged from a high-security laboratory in Wuhan that studies dangerous pathogens. China denies any such link.
The 2022 preprint paper said that a small portion of 923 samples collected from the stalls and sewage systems in and around the market tested positive for the virus; no virus was detected in 457 animal samples tested. The paper said initially that raccoon dogs were not among the animals tested.
The new analysis suggests "that raccoon dog and other animals may have been present before the market was cleaned as part of the public health intervention," the SAGO statement said.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”