No Scientific Backing for Claims COVID-19 Could Have Escaped from Wuhan Lab, say Scientists

There is “no scientific backing” for the two claims floated recently by some US politicians and media outlets that COVID-19 could be human-made and have escaped from a laboratory, scientists have said.

“The origin of the novel coronavirus is a legitimate area of scientific inquiry, in which there are still open questions,” said an article posted on April 22 on BuzzFeed News.

The piece, written by reporter,

Ryan Broderick, and based on interviews with several scientists, is titled “Scientists Haven’t Found Proof The Coronavirus Escaped From A Lab In Wuhan. Trump Supporters Are Spreading The Rumour Anyway”.

Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University, told BuzzFeed that he wasn’t even comfortable calling the idea that the lab was the source of the outbreak a theory. “A theory is based on results,” he

People who are saying it escaped from a lab have no idea what they’re talking about. No human could ever design this virus. Vincent Racaniello A professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University

said. “I think it’s driven by politics, frankly.

“People who are saying it escaped from a lab have no idea what they’re talking about.

“No human could ever design this virus.”

Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Centre for Global Development, said there was currently no evidence that the coronavirus originated in a lab -- either as a deliberate creation or an accidental release.

“There was a very early cluster (of cases) in the (Wuhan seafood) market,” he said, citing the assessment of virologist Trevor Bedford. “If the lab was the point of spillover, you wouldn’t necessarily see the early clustering in the market.” On April 21, World Health Organisation spokesperson Fadela Chaib told a news briefing that “all available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed in a lab or somewhere else”.