FACT CHECK: Scientists Revived 50,000-Year-Old 'Zombie Virus' Under Frozen Lake in Russia, Sparks Public Fears of Another Pandemic

FACT CHECK - A 50,000-year-old "zombie virus" was discovered and brought back to life by scientists under one of Russia's frozen lakes. This is now causing some public anxiety about the possibility of another pandemic.

A group of European researchers has successfully revived a "zombie" virus, said to be 48,500 years old, from the permafrost of Siberia.

Land that has been uninterruptedly frozen for a minimum of two years in a row is known as permafrost. Some regions of Siberia were frozen since the most recent Ice Age for millennia. However, this ancient soil is starting to thaw as a result of the continued increase in global temperatures.

In addition to storing greenhouse gases, permafrost is home to an unexplored variety of strange microbes, many of which are called extremophiles because they can endure harsh conditions.

The goal of the current study was to better understand the dangers that these "zombie" viruses pose. The study, which was written by Jean-Michel Claverie and his colleagues at the French university of Aix-Marseille, was released as a pre-print paper in BioRxiv that has not yet undergone peer review.

The risks that these isolated strains of viruses might pose to the general public's health have drawn the attention of many observers, even though they do not directly infect people.

Claim:

A clever wordplay on the name of the earliest known isolated virus, Pandoravirus yedoma, hundreds of Twitter users expressed their concerns about the study, claiming that the revived viruses could unleash a "Pandora's Box" of infectious diseases.

One user begged for the research to stop, to put the virus back, and to leave it alone in their response to an article shared by the New Scientist about the findings.

Another user joked that after two years of lockdowns, fatalities, mental strain, and other occurrences, scientists should be reviving the virus.

In a reply that received more than 6,000 likes, another user questioned how the alleged zombie virus ended up in the lake and why researchers are just now unearthing it. The user continued, saying that it was absurd.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there is growing public concern over the idea of reviving old viruses, with several social media posts announcing the possibility of a new pandemic receiving thousands of likes.

Facts:

According to The Daily Mail Online, the 48,500-year-old virus, a pandoravirus, only affects amoebas or single-celled organisms.

Experts said that compared to their host species, humans are more genetically similar to sponges.

Jean-Michel Claverie, an Aix-Marseille University professor of genomics and bioinformatics, said that since human cells evolved from amoebas nearly a billion years ago, such viruses would never infect human cells. Claverie is also the director of the Mediterranean Institute of Microbiology at the university, and he led the study.

Claverie continued to explain that these viruses are unable to infect humans due to the combined differences in how human cells and amoeba cells function.

Reviving the Virus

Claverie and his team revived the viruses by adding small amounts of each specimen sample to amoeba lab cultures and watching the viruses replicate in these cells.

The viruses enter the host cell and use the metabolism to replicate themselves so that hundreds or even thousands of these newly created viral particles are released when the host cell dies.

Read also: Oldest DNA Ever Discovered in Antarctica is About 1 Million Years Old, Study Shows 

Studying the Virus

Newsweek asked Claverie about the importance of spending time studying the virus if it won't affect humans.

Claverie explained that if amoeba viruses can persist in permafrost for that long, it is highly likely that both animal- and human-infecting viruses could continue to be contagious under the same circumstances. Additionally, permafrost has been found to contain known DNA and viruses that can infect both humans and animals.

According to earlier studies, there are currently fewer than 5 million people who reside near the Arctic permafrost. However, as the planet warms, scientists and authorities warn that melting ice in the Arctic will open up new resource troves and shipping lanes, putting more people at risk of making contact with these antiquated pathogens.

Claverie said that due to increased human exposure and the accelerated release of viruses preserved in the permafrost brought on by global warming, the Arctic is becoming much more accessible for industrial development.

Conclusion: FALSE.

Only amoeba are infected by the viruses that were revived in this study. There is no risk of viral transmission between humans and these single-celled organisms because they are so unrelated to us.

The study does show that other viruses can reanimate after lying dormant for millennia beneath the Arctic permafrost, suggesting that the thawing of the frozen soil could pose a significant risk to human health, Newsweek reports.

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