Claim: Japan defends cautious approach on coronavirus testing amid concerns.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Middle East respiratory syndrome
text: pneumonia and acute renal failure. After routine diagnostics failed to identify the causative agent, Zaki contacted Ron Fouchier, a leading virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for advice. Fouchier sequenced the virus from a sample sent by Zaki. Fouchier used a broad-spectrum "pan-coronavirus" real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method to test for distinguishing features of a number of known coronaviruses (such as OC43, 229R, NL63, and SARS-CoV), as well as for RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), a gene conserved in all coronaviruses known to infect humans. While the screens for known coronaviruses were all negative, the

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
text: and were therefore delaying the development of diagnostic tests. Erasmus MC responded that the patent application did not restrict public health research into MERS coronavirus, and that the virus and diagnostic tests were shipped—free of charge—to all that requested such reagents. There are a number of mapping efforts focused on tracking MERS coronavirus. On 2 May 2014, the Corona Map was launched to track the MERS coronavirus in realtime on the world map. The data is officially reported by WHO or the Ministry of Health of the respective country. HealthMap also tracks case reports with inclusion of news and social

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
text: risky. Not studying it is riskier." Dr. Zaki was fired from his job at the hospital as a result of bypassing the Saudi ministry of health in his announcement and sharing his sample and findings. At their annual meeting of the World Health Assembly in May 2013, WHO chief Margaret Chan declared that intellectual property, or patents on strains of new virus, should not impede nations from protecting their citizens by limiting scientific investigations. Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish raised concerns that scientists who held the patent for the MERS-CoV virus would not allow other scientists to use patented material

title: World Health Assembly
text: virus’s genetic makeup and closest relatives. The Erasmus Medical Center "tested, sequenced and identified" a sample provided by Ali Mohamed Zaki. Erasmus MC and Dr. Zaki strongly refuted all allegations concerning a presumed lack of willingness to cooperate in research into the new MERS coronavirus, making diagnostic tests and virus specimens freely available to all research institutions around the globe. The 67th WHA took place in Geneva on 19–24 May 2014. Among the more than 20 resolutions adopted by the Assembly included ones concerning strengthening of national drug management systems to address antimicrobial resistance; implementation of the Minamata Convention to

title: Bovine coronavirus
text: nasal washes – which identifies the viral antigen. The haemagglutination inhibition test can be used to establish the strain of coronavirus. Animals should be treated symptomatically. The disease can be controlled by vaccinating the dam with a live vaccine (ATCvet code QI02) whilst she is pregnant as this provides antibodies to the virus in the colostrum. Additional management factors such as ensuring adequate colostrum intake in newborn calves, using appropriate hygiene methods and ventilation of housing reduce disease incidence. Bovine coronavirus Bovine coronavirus (BCV) is as a member of the Coronaviridae family which are enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA viruses with

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome
text: based on the virus's RNA obtained from the Qatari case. On 25 September 2012, the WHO announced that it was "engaged in further characterizing the novel coronavirus" and that it had "immediately alerted all its Member States about the virus and has been leading the coordination and providing guidance to health authorities and technical health agencies." The Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam "tested, sequenced and identified" a sample provided to EMC virologist Ron Fouchier by Ali Mohamed Zaki in November 2012. On 8 November 2012 in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Zaki and

title: Coronavirus
text: 2013, a case of contamination from human to human in France was confirmed by the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. In addition, cases of person-to-person transmission have been reported by the Ministry of Health in Tunisia. Two confirmed cases seem to have caught the disease from their late father, who became ill after a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. By Oct. 30 2013, there were 124 cases and 52 deaths in Saudi Arabia. After the Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre sequenced the virus, the virus was given a new name, Human Corona Virus-Erasmus Medical Centre (HCoV-EMC). The final

title: World Health Assembly
text: citizens by limiting scientific investigations. Following the 2012 MERS outbreak in Saudi Arabia, Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish raised concerns that scientists who applied for a patent would not allow the MERS-coronavirus to be used for investigations by other scientists and were therefore delaying the development of diagnostic tests. Ten of the 22 people who died and 22 of 44 cases reported were in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia–based microbiologist Ali Mohamed Zaki reported the first known case, a 60-year-old Saudi man who got sick in June, 2012 on ProMed-mail, a public health on-line forum then published more details including the

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
text: to belong to the same species by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Strains: The virus grows readily on Vero cells and LLC-MK2 cells. The receptor for this virus is CD26 (dipeptidyl peptidase 4). Saudi officials had not given permission for Dr. Zaki, the first isolator of the human strain, to send a sample of the virus to Fouchier and were angered when Fouchier claimed the patent on the full genetic sequence of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. The editor of "The Economist" observed, "Concern over security must not slow urgent work. Studying a deadly virus is

title: Susan C. Baker
text: of their crown-like appearance under the electron microscope. Currently her lab is using a mouse model to test the function and inhibition of certain proteases involved in coronavirus infection. Baker has many published articles, mostly concerning Coronaviruses and Kawasaki Disease. The following are her most recent publications on these topics. In this study, the function of ubiquitin-like domains (Ubl) is studied. To find the function, structures of papain-like proteases (PLP) and domains of coronaviruses (CoVs) were studied. It was found that an adjacent Ubl domain was present in different CoV domains. This article shows the basis of the ubiquitin chain

title: SARS coronavirus
text: coronaviruses in Chinese bats. Phylogenetic analysis of these viruses indicated a high probability that SARS coronavirus originated in bats and spread to humans either directly or through animals held in Chinese markets. The bats did not show any visible signs of disease, but are the likely natural reservoirs of SARS-like coronaviruses. In late 2006, scientists from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of Hong Kong University and the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention established a genetic link between the SARS coronavirus appearing in civets and humans, confirming claims that the disease had jumped across species. The

title: Human coronavirus NL63
text: polymerase chain reaction of samples collected through nasopharyngeal swab is the most commonly used method for detection of the virus. Viral culture or blood serum testing for antibodies may also be used for the confirmation of infection. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends several measures for the prevention of infection with HCoV-NL63 including: washing hands often with soap and water, avoiding close contact with sick individuals, and not touching the eyes, mouth, or nose. Treatment for the HCoV-NL63 virus is dependent on the severity of associated symptomology. Most mild to moderate infections will go away on their own. Symptoms

title: Transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus
text: and they can be used to target antigens to that area and generate some immune response. Transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus Transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus (TGEV) is a virus belonging to the family "Coronaviridae", genus "Alphacoronavirus", species "Alphacoronavirus 1". TGEV are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a helical symmetry. The genomic size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 28.6 kilobases. Proteins that contribute to the overall structure of TGEV includes the spike (S), envelope (E), membrane (M) and nucleocapsid (N). Other coronaviruses belonging to "Alphacoronavirus 1" species include "Feline coronavirus", "Canine coronavirus" and "Feline infectious peritonitis virus". TGEV belongs to

title: Coronavirus
text: of a vaccine against the disease "since [the spike protein] appears to be recognized by the immune system of the host." Following the high-profile publicity of SARS outbreaks, there has been a renewed interest in coronaviruses among virologists. For many years, scientists knew about only two human coronaviruses (HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43). The discovery of SARS-CoV added a third human coronavirus. By the end of 2004, three independent research labs reported the discovery of a fourth human coronavirus. It has been named NL63, NL, and the New Haven coronavirus by different research groups. The three labs are still arguing over which

title: Transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus
text: as an expression vector. The vector was constructed by replacing the nonessential 3a and 3b ORF, which is driven by the transcription-regulating sequences (TRS) with green fluorescent protein. The resulting construct was still enteropathogenic, but with reduced growth. The infection of cells with this altered virus elicits a specific lactogenic immune response against the heterologous protein. The application of this vector is in the development of a vaccine or even gene therapy. The motivation for engineering the TGEV genome is that coronaviruses have large genomes, so they have room for insertion of foreign genes. Coronaviruses also infect the respiratory tract,

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: of unknown origin. Of the six, two died. All the cases were reported to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). After the September identification of a novel CoV strain, a retroactive analysis of the hospital workers was performed. Epidemiologists discovered the Jordan cases. Using stored laboratory samples for all six, it was found that samples from the two patients who had died tested positive for nCoV. On 24 April 2014, a 25-year-old male was found positive for the coronavirus. He had history of exposure to camels and had consumed camel milk. The Ministry of Health and Medical

title: Human coronavirus HKU1
text: these cases, French investigators utilized improved techniques for recovering the virus from nasopharyngeal aspirates and from stool samples. Human coronavirus HKU1 Human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1) is a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus with the HE gene, which distinguishes it as a group 2, or betacoronavirus. It was discovered in January 2005 in two patients in Hong Kong. HCoV-HKU1 was first identified in January, 2005, in a 71-year-old man who was hospitalized with an acute respiratory distress and radiolographically confirmed bilateral pneumonia. The man had recently returned to Hong Kong from Shenzhen, China. Woo, et al., were unsuccessful in their attempts to

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: coronavirus researcher at the Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The second laboratory-proven case was in London, confirmed by the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA). The HPA named the virus the London1_novel CoV 2012. On 8 November 2012, in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Zaki and co-authors from the Erasmus Medical Center published more details, including a scientific name, Human Coronavirus-Erasmus Medical Center (HCoV-EMC), which was then used in scientific literature. In the article, they noted four respiratory human coronaviruses (HCoV) known to be endemic: 229E, OC43, NL63, and HKU1. In May

title: Severe acute respiratory syndrome
text: show any visible signs of disease, but are the likely natural reservoirs of SARS-like coronaviruses. In late 2006, scientists from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention of Hong Kong University and the Guangzhou Centre for Disease Control and Prevention established a genetic link between the SARS coronavirus appearing in civets and humans, bearing out claims that the disease had jumped across species. In December 2017, "after years of searching across China, where the disease first emerged, researchers reported ... that they had found a remote cave in Yunnan province, which is home to horseshoe bats that carry a

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
text: media as data sources as part of HealthMap MERS. Lastly, South Korea was infected recently. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus The Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), or EMC/2012 (HCoV-EMC/2012), is a novel positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus of the genus Betacoronavirus. Initially called novel coronavirus 2012 or simply novel coronavirus, it was first reported in 2012 after genome sequencing of a virus isolated from sputum samples from a person who fell ill in a 2012 outbreak of a new flu. As of July 2015, MERS-CoV cases have been reported in over 21 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, the