Covid-19 is NOT a bioweapon created in a laboratory, say UK scientists as wild theories sweep the internet
- Report says its ‘improbable’ that coronavirus was created in a laboratory
- Bats or pangolins may have spread Covid-19 at Huanan Market in Wuhan
- Russian media blamed the UK for coronavirus in a broadcast earlier this week
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
Leading scientists say it is ‘improbable’ the coronavirus was made in a laboratory setting.
Wild theories have swept the internet claiming Covid-19 could be man made, while Russian state media tried to blame the UK earlier this week.
But a report published in Nature Medicine appears to rubbish those concerns, introducing its report by saying: ‘It is improbable that SARS-CoV-2 emerged through laboratory manipulation of a related SARS-CoV-like coronavirus.’
Researchers worldwide are studying Covid-19 in the hopes of developing a vaccine, this picture shows a lab technician handing a sample of the coronavirus in Ostrava, Czech Republic today
Scientists who studied the disease at a molecular level state it cannot be engineered, as its genetic data does not come from any previously used virus backbone.
After sharing their thoughts on the origins of the disease, the team of scientists conclude: ‘We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible.’
Kristian Andersen, an associate professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research and author of the paper, told The Herald: ‘By comparing the available genome sequence data for known coronavirus strains, we can firmly determine that SARS-CoV-2 originated through natural processes’
The first cases of coronavirus in China were people who had visited the Huanan Market in Wuhan.
Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, has been widely linked to the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Research published in Nature Medicine said the first animal to human contact may have come from a bat or pangolin, a scaly anteater, at the market
This report from UK scientists suggests the first human to contract the virus, which it names SARS-CoV-2, may have contracted it from a bat or a pangolin, which resembles an ant eater.
It goes on to advise: ‘Irrespective of the exact mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 originated via natural selection, the ongoing surveillance of pneumonia in humans and other animals is clearly of utmost importance.’