Slack / Private Message Drop — page 280

*Eddie Holmes* [9:50 PM] I'm not sure what I would conclude except that it is completely inappropriate to discuss the thoughts of the editors at Nature. In addition, they completely fail to note that it was Clare that suggested Nature Medicine!! Clare seems to have rejected the paper largely on the grounds that she thought it would go out of date quickly. [2020-11-26 06:12:26] [Robert Garry] Tommy has 6 SARS-CoV-2 sero-positive pangolins that are currently being metagenomically sequenced. The other news - which is obviously strictly confidential - is that someone in China (Tong?) has apparently obtained a MERS-like virus from a pangolin. [2020-11-26 06:16:13] [Robert Garry] Just revisiting some earlier threads - The one from July 27th vis-a-vis Deep throat. Why Claire "rejected" was obvioysly incorrect - PO1 has held up well. [2020-11-26 06:19:31] [Robert Garry] *11 November 2020* Editor's Note: Readers are alerted that concerns have been raised about the identity of the pangolin samples reported in this paper and their relationship to previously published pangolin samples. Appropriate editorial action will be taken once this matter is resolved. The second Eddie quote also pertinent in light of Xiao et al. editors note *11 November 2020* Editor's Note: Readers are alerted that concerns have been raised about the identity of the pangolin samples reported in this paper and their relationship to previously published pangolin samples. Appropriate editorial action will be taken once this matter is resolved. This is Alina and her Drastic clique it seems, but new pango sequences would be very helpful. [2020-11-26 06:41:34] [Robert Garry] I'm also very interested in the MERS-like virus from the pangos. Long story short: a few weeks ago I mentioned a lot of SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein seroreactivity in preCOVID blood from Sierra Leonians. The N rxty has held up [the Spike/RBDmostly did not], but more complicated. We expressed the nucleocapsid of the other human coronaviruses to see if this could be explained by rxty to common cold viruses. HKU1 N gave us a little trouble but turns out that the SARS2 rxty can mostly be explained by rxty to MERS nucleocapsid (they are 50% identical, 79% similar at the amino acid level). Got the folks in Kenema doing PCR of nasal swabs and saliva. Obviously this will be more meaningful if we can - you know - actually find the "MERS-like" virus. May explain why the COVID pandemic seems to be sparing Africa. [2020-11-26 12:11:34] [Eddie Holmes] Totally agree about the pangos Bob. Very important! I'll check with Tommy about where we are at. The Xiao et al. group - who are straight, but naive - have more data but can't publish it because they have dishonoured their institutions. That went well then. [2020-11-26 14:39:23] [Robert Garry] Yes indeed - for me the GD pango RBD is game-over/mic drop for natural origin of SC2, No way the pango RBD was selected in cell culture via passage of a bat cov. No one designed this sequence with a computer based on SARS1. An independent isolate is unnecessary perhaps but would seal the deal except for the most entrenched tinfoil hats. [2020-11-26 15:17:50] [Eddie Holmes] Completely agree, although one presented in the Lam paper is independent. They took from the Li et al. Viruses paper but then assembled another from scales. Also, critical to remember that there is a 2nd pango lineage in Guangxi. [2020-11-26 17:54:06]