Study by Chinese claiming COVID-19 originated in India withdrawn

New Delhi, Dec 15: A study that had claimed that India may be the place where the earliest human to human novel coronavirus transmission had occurred has been withdrawn from the preprint platform of the medical journal, The Lancet.

A report in the Global Times said that the study was first posted on SSRN.com, the preprint portal of the medical journal on November 17. However, the article has been withdrawn.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Institute of Neuroscience under the CAS, the Shanghai-based Fudan University and the University of Texas in Houston. The study titled Early Cryptic says that the transmission and evolution of the SARS-COV2 in Human Hosts said that India may be the place where the earliest human to human novel coronavirus transmission occurred, three to four months before the outbreak in Wuhan.

"If the researchers or researching institute found their studies may have lacked data, or are not solid or deliberate enough to draw a conclusion, they would consider withdrawing their study, a Beijing-based public health expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity."

"The withdrawal of this study on the virus origin shows that tracking the virus origin around the world is a complicated scientific question, which is not an easy task, and is far from reaching a conclusion without international collaboration," he said.

As the paper was still a pre-print version that has yet to go through the peer-review process, the withdrawal could mean that the results of the study may need further verification, experts said. More evidence suggests the early existence of the virus in the world before human beings became aware of it, and it points to multiple sources," he further added.