Chinese scientists created Covid-19: New study reveals absence of ‘credible natural ancestor’

World

As calls to trace the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus grow around the world, a new study, conducted by British professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr Birger Sorensen, claims that the virus was created in a lab and has “no credible natural ancestor”. The Daily Mail cited the study and reported that the virus was created by Chinese scientists who were working on a “Gain of Function” project in the Wuhan lab.

The research, according to the report, claims that scientists took a natural coronavirus “backbone” found in Chinese cave bats and spliced onto it a “new spike”, turning it into the deadly Covid-19. The 22-page paper was published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery.‘Gain of function” projects involve tweaking natural viruses in order to make them more infectious. They have been outlawed in the United States of America.

“The implication of our historical reconstruction, we posit now beyond reasonable doubt, of the purposively manipulated chimeric virus SARS-CoV-2 makes it imperative to reconsider what types of Gain of Function experiments it is morally acceptable to undertake,” they wrote. The study claims that Chinese scientists “retro-engineered” the virus, in order to make it look like it evolved naturally.

Also Read: Chinese blogger jailed for 8 months over blogging on India- China dispute

“We think that there have been retro-engineered viruses created. They’ve changed the virus, then tried to make out it was in a sequence years ago,” Dalgleish told DailyMail.com. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has ordered aides to find answers to the origin of the virus that causes Covid-19, saying on Wednesday that US intelligence agencies are pursuing rival theories potentially including the possibility of a laboratory accident in China.

Also Read: Wuhan probe clamour rages: Scientist hunt for ‘Patient Su’