2012
Six men are hospitalised in April and May after working in a bat-infested mine near Tongguan in Mojiang County, Yunnan. Infection by a bat virus is suspected and top laboratories including that of Dr Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) start to search the mine for viruses
2013
WIV scientists find RaTG13, a sarbecovirus (SARS-like coronavirus), in a sample taken from the Mojiang mine to Wuhan
2014
US moratorium on gain-of-function research
Beijing scientists reveal they searched the Mojiang mine but didn’t find the virus that sickened the miners
Scientists from the lab of the then deputy director of the Chinese CDC, Dr George Gao, search the Mojiang mine for viruses
2015
The WIV finds eight other sarbecoviruses in the Mojiang mine
Dr Shi of the WIV co-authors a paper reporting the manipulation of a furin cleavage site in MERS and MERS-like spike genes
Dr Shi co-authors a paper with Dr Ralph Baric creating a chimeric sarbecovirus with a spike gene from a bat sarbecovirus
2016
Dr Shi publishes a small fragment of RaTG13 under the name BtCoV/4991
2017
Dr Shi reports the creation of eight recombinant bat sarbecoviruses
Moratorium on gain-of-function research ends; framework on work with enhanced potential pandemic pathogens is introduced
2018
RaTG13’s full genome is sequenced
The WIV files patent for bat breeding cages
2019
The WIV takes its extensive pathogen database offline on 12 September; as far as we can tell, they were studying nine of the closest relatives to SARS-CoV-2 known to scientists at the time in the laboratory – all collected from the Mojiang mine
Wuhan Military World Games committee holds an exercise in how to respond to a novel coronavirus outbreak (September)
The WIV files patent for finger-wound device
WIV study of people living in sarbecovirus spillover zone in southern China says that bat coronavirus spillover is rare
Dr Peter Daszak describes progress with finding 100 novel sarbecoviruses; some can infect human cells and humanised mice in the laboratory
Covid-19/SARS-CoV-2 is first detected in Wuhan in late 2019
17 Nov
Fifty-five-year-old man in Hubei province is allegedly the earliest case to be retrospectively diagnosed
1 Dec
First clinically diagnosed case according to Lancet study
8 Dec
First clinically diagnosed case according to China-WHO joint study on the origin of Covid-19
24 Dec
Patient sample from Wuhan Central Hospital is sent for testing
26 Dec
The sample tests positive for a coronavirus
27 Dec
First SARS-CoV-2 genome is obtained and allegedly shared with the WIV
30 Dec
Doctors at Wuhan Central Hospital, Dr Ai Fen and Dr Li Wenliang, blow the whistle on novel SARS-related coronavirus infections
This information is leaked online and reaches the Chinese CDC director, Dr George Gao
Dr Shi is called to return to Wuhan from a Shanghai conference in order to look into the novel coronavirus outbreak; she wonders if it came from her laboratory because she ‘never expected this kind of thing to happen in Wuhan, in central China’.
The WIV’s pathogen database fact sheet is updated
ProMED sends a global alert regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak
31 Dec
Huanan seafood market is disinfected while hundreds of samples are taken from surfaces and animal carcasses or products
1 Jan
The authorities crack down on doctors and scientists sharing information about the outbreak in the media or online
3 Jan
Dr Li Wenliang is interrogated by police and made to sign a confession to wrongdoing
Chinese authorities order all patient samples to be destroyed or transferred to designated institutions
Dr Zhang Yongzhen in Shanghai receives Wuhan patient samples
The SARS-CoV-2 genome is shared with companies to develop diagnostics
4 Jan
The Chinese vaccine developer Sinopharm starts to manufacture a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2
5 Jan
Dr Zhang obtains the SARS-CoV-2 genome and uploads it to the international GenBank database under embargo; he tells Wuhan Central Hospital that they are dealing with a dangerous pathogen
7 Jan
Dr Zhang submits a paper to Nature describing the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its genome
11 Jan
As pressure grows, Dr Zhang shares the genome with his co-author Dr Edward Holmes who posts the genome online
13 Jan
Taiwan sends experts to Wuhan to check if human-to-human transmission is occurring
First Covid-19 case outside China: a traveller from Wuhan to Thailand
14 Jan
World Health Organization (WHO) announces that the Chinese authorities have found ‘no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China’
18 Jan
Sir Jeremy Farrar informs the WHO of data pointing to human-to-human transmission
Wuhan mayor hosts record-breaking banquet in the city
20 Jan
Chinese government confirms human-to-human transmission of the virus
Dr Shi submits her first two papers on the novel coronavirus to prestigious scientific journals; neither point out the furin cleavage site
22 Jan
Chinese CDC says the virus likely came from wild animals illegally sold at Huanan seafood market
Pangolin coronavirus data is released by Chinese scientists on the international NCBI database following a 2019 paper
23 Jan
Wuhan is locked down
Dr Shi preprints a seminal paper on the novel coronavirus and RaTG13
WHO votes not to declare an international emergency
31 Jan
China reports to the OIE World Animal Health Information System that no animal samples from the Huanan seafood market have tested positive for the virus
1 Feb
Top scientists and virologists in the West hold conference call to discuss the origin of the virus, including the possibility of a lab origin; several participants consider a lab origin at least as likely as a natural origin
6 Feb
Wuhan scientists post an article online suggesting a laboratory origin (the article is quickly withdrawn)
Dr Peter Daszak drafts a letter to condemn conspiracy theories suggesting anything other than a natural origin and recruits signatories
7 Feb
Dr Li Wenliang dies from Covid-19
Chinese scientists announce discovery of a pangolin virus that is allegedly a 99 per cent match to SARS-CoV-2
18–20 Feb
Four preprints are posted online describing the same pangolin coronavirus that has a similar spike receptor-binding domain to SARS-CoV-2, but is only 90 per cent similar overall
24 Feb
Chinese CDC informs its offices that information regarding the novel coronavirus must not be shared publicly
7 Mar
Dr Daszak’s letter co-signed by twenty-seven prominent scientists is published by the Lancet
11 Mar
WHO declares a pandemic
17 Mar
Dr Kristian Andersen and colleagues publish ‘Proximal Origin’ correspondence in Nature Medicine: ‘We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible’
2 May
Alina’s preprint on the adaptation of SARS-CoV-2 for humans is posted online
18 May
The Seeker posts the medical thesis describing the Mojiang miners under Alina’s Twitter thread on her preprint
25 May
Dr Gao of the Chinese CDC announces that Huanan seafood market is a victim and that the virus had existed long before the market
29 May
The Seeker posts a doctoral thesis from Dr Gao’s lab describing the Mojiang miners and providing GPS coordinates to the mine
31 May
The WIV and EcoHealth Alliance publish Latinne et al. preprint with data on viruses collected up till 2015
7 Jul
Alina and Dr Shing Hei Zhan post a preprint revealing scientific issues with the pangolin papers
31 Jul
The WHO agrees terms of reference for its joint study with the Chinese government on the origins of the virus
2 Aug
Francisco de Ribera and ‘Babar’ conclude that eight viruses from the Latinne et al. manuscript were from the Mojiang mine
11 Nov
An editor’s note is added to a pangolin paper in Nature (though no correction has been made to date)
17 Nov
An addendum is added by Dr Shi to her Nature paper acknowledging connection to the Mojiang mine and reporting additional sarbecoviruses found in the mine
14 Jan
WHO-recruited international experts arrive in Wuhan
15 Jan
US State Department issues a fact sheet pointing to possibility of a laboratory origin
9 Feb
China-WHO joint study press conference in Wuhan
4 Mar
Open letter by international experts and scientists, including Alina, calls for a full investigation including that of a lab origin
30 Mar
China-WHO joint study publishes its report
14 May
Letter in Science co-signed by prominent scientists, including Alina, calls for a credible investigation into both natural and laboratory origin hypotheses
26 May
US President Joe Biden announces ninety-day inquiry by the intelligence community into the origin of Covid-19
22 Jun
Dr Jesse Bloom unearths early Wuhan Covid-19 data deleted from the international NCBI database in June 2020; the data exonerate the Huanan seafood market
22 Jul
Chinese government announces that it will not cooperate with second phase of WHO’s Covid-19 origins investigation
3 Aug
Chinese authorities share draft changes to the Regulation on the Administration of Laboratory Animals for public consultation, including the text ‘Animals used in experiments cannot go back on the market’
6 Aug
Scientist in Beijing is revealed to have caught Covid-19 in a laboratory in early 2020
9 Aug
Chinese state-owned Global Times publishes allegations that laboratories at the University of North Carolina could have leaked the virus
27 Aug
Biden administration releases inconclusive report from US intelligence agencies about the origin of the virus
6 Sep
Documents released to the Intercept by National Institutes of Health reveal new information about the WIV’s creation of chimeric viruses with increased pathogenicity