A Coronavirus Epidemic Hit 20,000 Years Ago

A Coronavirus Epidemic Hit 20,000 Years Ago, New Study Finds

A few dozen human genes rapidly grow in ancient East Asia to thwart coronavirus infections, scientists say. Those genes could be crucial to today’s pandemic.

Researchers have found evidence that a coronavirus epidemic swept East Asia some 20,000 years ago and was devastating enough to leave an evolutionary imprint on the DNA of people alive today.

The new study suggests that an ancient coronavirus plagued the region for many years, researchers say. The finding could have dire implications for the Covid-19 pandemic if it’s not brought under control soon through vaccination.

“It should make us worry,” said David Enard, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who led the study, “What is going on right now might go on for generations.”

Until now, researchers could not look back very far into the history of this family of pathogens. Over the past 20 years, three coronaviruses have adapted to infect humans and cause severe respiratory disease: Studies on each of these coronaviruses indicate that they jumped into our species from bats or other mammals.

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