Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

COVID-origins report sparks debate over major genome hub GISAID

GISAID revoked researchers’ access following the report, sparking discussion about findings based on data found in online repositories.
  1. Smriti Mallapaty
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

On 20 March, an international team of researchers posted a headline-grabbing online report1 describing genomic data found in swabs taken from the market in Wuhan, China, that has been linked to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were gathered by a separate team in China and hosted on a major online database, the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID). Hours later, GISAID temporarily revoked the authors’ access.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 616, 13-14 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00901-9

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 31 March 2023: GISAID has now removed the additional restrictions that it had introduced for access to the China CDC data; the story has been changed to reflect that.

  • Correction 31 March 2023: An earlier version of this story said that GISAID had clarified its rules for access to the China CDC data after the Zenodo report was posted; in fact it added more restrictions.

References

  1. Crits-Christoph, A. et al. Report at Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7754299 (2023).

  2. Gao, G. et al. Preprint at Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1370392/v1 (2022).

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

  • IT Coordinator in a Management Capacity (m/f/d)

    The Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie on the Campus Innenstadt invites applications for the department Precision Psychiatry

    Munich (Stadt), Bayern (DE)

    LMU Klinikum

  • Research Technician of Sustainable Alternative Pig Production (ScO)

    Research Technician of Sustainable Alternative Pig Production (ScO) - 17-month fixed term contract

    Hillsborough, Lisburn & Castlereagh (GB)

    Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Northern Ireland (AFBI)

  • Research Group Heads, BeiGene Institute

    A cross-disciplinary research organization where cutting-edge science and technology drive the discovery of impactful Insights

    Pudong New Area, Shanghai

    BeiGene Institute

  • Postdoctoral Fellow

    New postdoctoral positions are open in a cancer research laboratory located within The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The lab curre...

    Houston, Texas (US)

    The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Experimental Radiation Oncology

  • Junior Research Group Leader (f/m/d)

    Friedrich Schiller University is a traditional university with a strong research profile rooted in the heart of Germany. As a university covering a...

    Jena, Thüringen (DE)

    Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links