Coronavirus pandemic: All you need to know about Wuhan lab speculations

The Wuhan laboratory which has been accused by top US officials of being the source of coronavirus pandemic has been conducting research on the virus. However, US President Donald Trump and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo have repeatedly claimed that there is evidence that the pathogen came from the lab itself. 

While world leaders are grappling to contain the CIVID-19 outbreak, several leaders have also speculated that the deadly coronavirus was human-made and started from contact with infected animals or from an ‘accident; at the Wuhan lab in China. However, China has strongly denied the allegations. Even the World Health Organisation reportedly said that Washington had offered no evidence to support the ‘speculative’ claims. 

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Several scientists believe that coronavirus jumped from animals to humans, possible at a Wuhan market selling wild animals. The top US epidemiologist, Anthony Fauci, also echoed that evidence so far ‘strongly indicates’ a natural origin. According to a previous study, it was also concluded that the new virus shared a 79.6 per cent sequence identity to the SARS coronavirus, and it was 96 per cent identical at the whole-genome level to a coronavirus found in bats. 

While the scientists think COVDI-19 originated in bats and could have been transmitted to people via another animal like a pangolin, the US still continues to investigate further as there is no evidence or a definitive answer so far. The US diplomatic cables reportedly also said that the officials were concerned about the inadequate safety standards related to researchers’ handling of the virus in the high-security lab in Wuhan. 

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‘Need to look into the origin of COVID-19’

However, the institute reportedly said that it received a sample of the then-unknown virus on December 30, determined the viral genome sequence on January 2 and submitted the information on the pathogen to the WHO on January 11. One of China’s leading experts on bat coronavirus also said that she would ‘bet her life’ that the virus had nothing to do with the lab. The expert also reportedly said that the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence did not match any of the bat coronaviruses her laboratory had previously collected and studied. 

While there is still no proof for the lab accident theory, there is also no clear evidence that the virus came from Wuhan market. Several scientists believe that the researchers ‘need to look into the origin’ of the deadly COVID-19 as it has already affected nearly 212 countries and territories around the globe. While scientists have the hypothesis that the virus came from a live animal market, there is still no definitive evidence that shows to the contrary. 

(Image: PTI) 

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