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Doctor with protective mask in an emergency room in Dakar, Senegal (picture from April 2020)
Photo: John Wessels / AFP
Shortly after the publication, experts had expressed doubts about the work: now the specialist journal "Science" and a team led by Jan Felix Drexler from the Charité in Berlin have withdrawn a study on the development of the corona variant Omicron.
According to the study, published in early December, omicron formed gradually over several months in various African countries.
"According to the latest findings, parts of the statements made in the study about contamination in test samples can no longer be verified without reasonable doubt," said the Charité.
Shortly after publication, other experts had raised doubts about the genome sequences.
In a subsequent post-analysis of residual samples, impurities were found.
"The continued statement of the publication that viruses with omicron sequence characteristics already existed before official detection in South Africa is based on consistent PCR detections from laboratories in various African countries," Charité continues.
However, the individual virus evolution stages could no longer be unequivocally reconstructed due to the impurities that had occurred.
Timely correction not possible
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The Charité writes that the entire publication has now been withdrawn because the large number of samples to be checked makes it impossible to correct it in a timely manner.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, Richard Neher, a proven expert on virus mutations from the University of Basel, expressed skepticism about it.
"I'm not convinced," he had written on Twitter.
Certain data from the Charité team could be conclusively explained by contamination.
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 assumes that omicrons developed in animals and then jumped back to humans.
SPIEGEL also published a report on the study that has now been withdrawn.
It happens from time to time that scientific specialist publications that have been published in recognized specialist journals and have therefore previously undergone a review process by experts (peer review) have to be withdrawn.
During the pandemic, however, there were also debates about so-called preprints, i.e. studies that experts upload to servers provided for this purpose without peer review.
Tens of thousands of studies on Corona have appeared on such platforms since the beginning of 2020 and have been picked up by the media.
DER SPIEGEL evaluated what became of the papers that its editors reported on.
The result: Most, but not always, the papers later made it through the peer review.
Read more about this here .
ani/dpa