Sarah E. Miller and Cynthia S. Goldsmith

We are concerned about the erroneous identification of coro-navirus directly in tissues by authors using electron microscopy. Several recent articles have been published that purport to have identified severe acute respiratory syndrome corona- virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) directly in tissue. Most describe particles that resemble, but do not have the appearance of, coronaviruses.

… Identification of viruses is not always straight forward. Consideration should be given to the mechanism of virus production, including the location inside of cells, as well as the appearance (size, shape, internal pattern of the nucleocapsid, and surface spikes).14–16 Care should be taken to prevent mistaking cell organelles for viral particles.

Image: CDC