Wuhan lab did 'absolutely crazy things' to get coronavirus to infect humans, Russian microbiologist claims
A leading Russian microbiologist has claimed that Chinese scientists did "absolutely crazy things" to give the novel coronavirus the ability to infect humans. Professor Petr Chumakov, the chief researcher at the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology in Moscow, said that these Chinese scientists were possibly studying the pathogenicity of the virus when the outbreak happened.
"In China, scientists at the Wuhan Laboratory have been actively involved in the development of various coronavirus variants for over ten years," he said. "Moreover, they did this, supposedly not with the aim of creating pathogenic variants, but to study their pathogenicity."
"They did absolutely crazy things, in my opinion," he added.
Chumakov explained that the virus had inserts in its genome which gave it the ability to infect humans and that "the picture of the possible creation of the current coronavirus is slowly emerging," including the involvement of Americans.
"There are several inserts, that is, substitutions of the natural sequence of the genome, which gave it special properties," he said. "It is interesting that the Chinese and Americans who worked with them published all their works in the open (scientific) press."
"I even wonder why this background comes to people very slowly," he continued. "I think that an investigation will nevertheless be initiated, as a result of which new rules will be developed that regulate the work with the genomes of such dangerous viruses. It’s too early to blame anyone."
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported that US and China-funded scientists at the CAS Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety at the Wuhan Institute of Virology studied coronaviruses in bats for five years.
They had been studying severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) viruses found in multiple species of horseshoe bats that were living in a cave located approximately 60 km from the city of Kunming in China.
The team ultimately found that "genetic recombination between viral strains in bats" may have produced the "direct evolutionary ancestor" of the strain that caused a deadly outbreak of SARS in humans.
As scientists believe that the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, was passed from bats to a mystery animal species that then passed it on to humans, the research provided new insights into the pandemic's evolution.
Chumakov went on to say that he did not think there was malicious intent behind the virus' development and that scientists have been experimenting to find a cure for a disease like HIV.
However, he did not rule out mismanagement and hinted at darker influences. "No one excludes that behind the scientists stood curators who directed actions in another direction which they needed," he said.
The assertion that it was developed in a lab, accidentally or not, has been rubbished by scientists. An analysis by researchers from the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research, US, concluded the virus is a product of natural evolution.
Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov has also warned against spreading rumors that the virus was man-made. "In the situation where there is not enough information that has been supported and checked by science... we think it is unacceptable, impossible, to groundlessly accuse anyone," he said.