COVID-19-like illness in Mojiang miners (2012) and the mine could provide important clues to the origin of SARS-CoV-2

There is currently a lack of information regarding the precise origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The nearest genomic relative to SARS-CoV-2 was reported in February to be a bat virus RaTG13. The sequence RaTG13 (CoV/4991) is in fact derived from a sample originally collected from a mineshaft in Mojiang, Yunnan in July 2013. The reason for the coronavirus surveillance in this bat population was an outbreak of lethal pneumonia in six miners in 2012. Three of the miners succumbed to the infection. A medical student’s Masters thesis from Kunming Medical University describes clearly the miners’ conditions, the details of which upon review show a striking resemblance to COVID-19. The similarities were in terms of bilateral pneumonia, thrombotic complications, and secondary infections. The treatment was a combination of antivirals, steroids, anti-thrombotic, and antibiotics are similar to what is given for COVID-19. This thesis also confirms that samples from these miners were sent to WIV. However, no report of any viruses recovered from these miners exists. This single mine was visited multiple times between 2012 and 2013 by researchers representing three institutes and the bat virus samples were collected and used for at least eight reports. The similarities between the 2012 illness in Mojiang miners and COVID-19, the subsequent sampling of the bats by various labs, and finding the SARS-CoV-2 nearest relative from this single mine in Mojiang warrants further investigation into the full history of this incident.Manuscript under review