NIH complied with Chinese request to delete COVID dataGene sequence of early Wuhan patients could have aided pandemic research
https://www.wnd.com/2021/06/4926001/
By Art Moore
Published June 24, 2021 at 7:00pm


Early in the novel coronavirus epidemic, the National Institutes of Health submitted to a request by a Chinese researcher to delete gene-sequence data taken from COVID-19 patients in Wuhan.

The move by China reported by the Wall Street Journal raises further concerns about Beijing's efforts to block crucial research that could have aided the pandemic response as well as investigations into the origin of the outbreak.

The NIH told the Journal in a statement it complied with the request because "[s]ubmitting investigators hold the rights to their data and can request withdrawal of the data."

The researcher asked the NIH to remove the sequences from its database because they had been updated. According to a paper by Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, the virus samples were from hospitalized patients in Wuhan. The patients were said to have been infected in the first two months of 2020.-- excerpt, rest at link above --