<p>I've got a GISAID account and it's subject to an approval process. It was pretty simple and is awarded quickly. There are definitely no fees needed. I personally didn't see the advantages over NCBI's really very impressive SARS-CoV-2 database system and thats what I'd recommend.</p>
<p>Their resource is here:
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/virus/vssi/#/virus?SeqType_s=Nucleotide&amp;VirusLineage_ss=SARS-CoV-2,%20taxid:2697049&amp;ids=MZ039713%20MZ039682%20OV522182%20" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/virus/vssi/#/virus?SeqType_s=Nucleotide&amp;VirusLineage_ss=SARS-CoV-2,%20taxid:2697049&amp;ids=MZ039713%20MZ039682%20OV522182%20</a></p>
<p>Its perfect for interrogation, it has the full spectrum of epidemiological metadata, and further details are in this post here:</p>
<p><a href="https://bioinformatics.stackexchange.com/questions/18642/how-to-programatically-download-sars-cov-2-fasta-from-ncbi-genbank-via-api/18643#18643">How to programatically download SARS-CoV-2 fasta from NCBI/Genbank via API?</a></p>
<p>The Science journal page seemed a very good write up of GISAID BTW.</p>
<hr />
<p>If you are wanting GISAID for networking, thats a bit tricky because NCBI is not going to do that.
You can reapply for GISAID access, but at the time I was much more impressed by NCBI. The speed at which NCBI produced an awesome database was truly jaw-dropping and they'd implemented full pangolineages classification at an early stage. Thus I just use NCBI.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-19T21:53:08.747Z
Thanks for the edit @gringer, much appreciated. ".. it has all the data" is good interpretation of what I wrote, but my writing wasn't clear. Specifically, "it has all the epidemiological metadata" is what I intended to say.
M__
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-19T18:20:20.300Z
2023-05-19T21:51:08.203Z
2023-05-19T21:51:08.203Z
M__
<p>Inspired by <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01047-4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">amateur variant hunters</a>, I would like to join the Pango lineage proposal community and help contribute to variant surveillance.</p>
<p>However, I cannot seem to get access to GISAID, the platform that exclusively hosts a large share of SARS-CoV-2 sequences from around the world.</p>
<p>I applied/registered for an account back in summer 2022 (almost a year ago) using this form: <a href="https://gisaid.org/register/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://gisaid.org/register/</a></p>
<p>But since then, nothing has happened. I have send an email and filled out the contact form on the website but never heard back.</p>
<p>I am very confused how GISAID can say they are a &quot;public&quot; database, while at the same time not giving accounts to people like me, not even responding to emails.</p>
<p>How does everyone else get access? Is there a secret email you need to contact? Or do you need to pay? I've read <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/invented-persona-behind-key-pandemic-database" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> which describes the founder of GISAID in detail.</p>
<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated!</p>

<phylogenetics><phylogeny><public-databases><sars-cov-2><variants>
How to get a GISAID account? I registered months ago, still no reply!
# How to get a GISAID account? I registered months ago, still no reply!

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-05-19)

Inspired by [amateur variant hunters](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01047-4), I would like to join the Pango lineage proposal community and help contribute to variant surveillance.

However, I cannot seem to get access to GISAID, the platform that exclusively hosts a large share of SARS-CoV-2 sequences from around the world.

I applied/registered for an account back in summer 2022 (almost a year ago) using this form: <https://gisaid.org/register/>

But since then, nothing has happened. I have send an email and filled out the contact form on the website but never heard back.

I am very confused how GISAID can say they are a "public" database, while at the same time not giving accounts to people like me, not even responding to emails.

How does everyone else get access? Is there a secret email you need to contact? Or do you need to pay? I've read [here](https://www.science.org/content/article/invented-persona-behind-key-pandemic-database) which describes the founder of GISAID in detail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

**Tags:** phylogenetics, phylogeny, public-databases, sars-cov-2, variants

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-05-19. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

I've got a GISAID account and it's subject to an approval process. It was pretty simple and is awarded quickly. There are definitely no fees needed. I personally didn't see the advantages over NCBI's really very impressive SARS-CoV-2 database system and thats what I'd recommend.

Their resource is here:
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/virus/vssi/#/virus?SeqType_s=Nucleotide&VirusLineage_ss=SARS-CoV-2,%20taxid:2697049&ids=MZ039713%20MZ039682%20OV522182%20>

Its perfect for interrogation, it has the full spectrum of epidemiological metadata, and further details are in this post here:

[How to programatically download SARS-CoV-2 fasta from NCBI/Genbank via API?](https://bioinformatics.stackexchange.com/questions/18642/how-to-programatically-download-sars-cov-2-fasta-from-ncbi-genbank-via-api/18643#18643)

The Science journal page seemed a very good write up of GISAID BTW.

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If you are wanting GISAID for networking, thats a bit tricky because NCBI is not going to do that.
You can reapply for GISAID access, but at the time I was much more impressed by NCBI. The speed at which NCBI produced an awesome database was truly jaw-dropping and they'd implemented full pangolineages classification at an early stage. Thus I just use NCBI.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Thanks for the edit @gringer, much appreciated. ".. it has all the data" is good interpretation of what I wrote, but my writing wasn't clear. Specifically, "it has all the epidemiological metadata" is what I intended to say.  

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