Omicron from Africa? Study withdrawn due to contamination

According to the study published in early December omicron gradually developed over several months in different African countries. “According to the latest findings, parts of the statements made in the study regarding contamination in test samples can no longer be verified without reasonable doubt.”

Samples contaminated

The Charité announced on Tuesday. Shortly after publication, other researchers had raised doubts about the genome sequences. In a subsequent post-analysis of residual samples, impurities were found. “The publication’s continued statement that viruses with omicron-Sequence characteristics already existed before the official detection in South Africa is based on consistent PCR detections from laboratories in different African countries,” writes the Charité. However, the individual virus evolution stages could no longer be reconstructed with certainty due to the contamination that occurred.

According to their own statements, dozens of researchers examined a total of 13,000 samples from 22 African countries for the “Science” study. The Charité writes that the entire publication has now been withdrawn because the large number of samples to be checked makes it impossible to correct it in a timely manner.

Just a few days after the study was published, the proven expert on virus mutations, Richard Neher (University of Basel), expressed skepticism about it. “I’m not convinced,” he wrote on Twitter. Certain of the researchers’ data did not support their thesis of the gradual development of omicron.

omicron has an unusually high number of around 30 amino acid changes in the important spike protein alone. The multitude of genetic changes led other experts to assume that the variant might have developed in a person with HIV or another form of immune deficiency. Another hypothesis is that omicron developed in animals and then jumped back to humans.