A new COVID-19 study claimed that the current global pandemic already took place 20,000 years ago.
The research's findings are really important since various medical experts and other scientists can study it thoroughly to know how the affected individuals survived the alleged old COVID-19 epidemic.
(Photo : Photo by Misha Friedman/Getty Images)
Raychel Lewis, cell culture technician, setting up equipment to test COVID-19 samples from recovered patients at Mirimus lab on April 8, 2020 in Brooklyn, New York City. New York City is the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and over 122,000 New Yorkers have tested positive for coronavirus.
Involved researchers explained that for the past 20 years, SARS, MERS, and other coronaviruses already lead to various outbreaks. And now, the world is suffering from COVID-19.
The new study title "An ancient viral epidemic involving host coronavirus interacting genes more than 20,000 years ago in East Asia" was conducted by a team of medical experts from the United States and Australia.
They claimed that they discovered the evidence of a coronavirus epidemic that happened thousands of years ago, specifically in East Asia. This new study was published in the Current Biology scientific journal on Thursday, June 24.
COVID-19 Happened Thousands Of Years Ago?
COVID-19 is still affecting various parts of the world. Because of this, different vaccines are now being developed, including the new CureVac vaccine.
Jess Baddams, paramedic, holds a blood sample as she poses for a photograph during an antibody testing program at the Hollymore Ambulance Hub of the West Midlands Ambulance Service, operated by the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, on June 5, 2020 in Birmingham, England.
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Medical experts make serious efforts to prevent the further spread of the novel coronavirus, especially since there is a new rising variant called Delta, which claims to be the most dominant of all variants.
But, the new study claimed that this scenario is not new since it already affected some countries thousands of years ago. These include Japan, China, Vietnam, and other regions.
"Here, we apply evolutionary analyses to human genomic datasets to recover selection events involving tens of human genes that interact with coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, that likely started more than 20,000 years ago," said Yassine Souilmi, the lead author of the study.
Science The Wire reported that the scientists studied the genomes of more than 2,5000 people from 26 different populations around the globe before they came up with their conclusion.
How People Survived COVID-19 Thousands Of Years Ago?
According to CNN Health's latest report, Souilmi and his research team discovered that the previously infected participants developed a beneficial mutation, which helped them survived the old coronavirus.
Scientists claimed that the mutation gave them an edge to survive the alleged COVID-19 thousands of years ago. Souilmi added that they discovered a genome signature, which allowed them to detect the ancient epidemic.
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Written by: Griffin Davis
