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April 18, 2020 06:41 pm

'Claim That Covid-19 Came From Lab In China Completely Unfounded Scientists Say'

Newsweek reports: There is no evidence to back claims the coronavirus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic emerged from a lab in China, scientists have told Newsweek. Adam Lauring, an associate professor at the University of Michigan Medical School and an expert in the evolution of viruses, told Newsweek: "This claim is a conspiracy theory and it is not supported at all by the available data... The SARS-CoV-2 virus has some key differences in specific genes relative to previously identified coronaviruses — the ones a laboratory would be working with," said Lauring. "This constellation of changes makes it unlikely that it is the result of a laboratory 'escape.'" Alexandre Hassanin, a lecturer at France's Sorbonne University National Museum of Natural History department of origins and evolution, similarly highlighted to Newsweek: "Even if it is difficult to prove that a laboratory accident did not take place, you should know that SARS-CoV-2 is not closely related to any previous viruses; it was never sequenced (even partially) in previous studies, and the COVID-19 outbreak began in November/December, as in previous SARS epidemic events (2002 and 2003)." Hassanin said: "These two points suggest therefore that the current outbreak was not the consequence of a laboratory accident." An anonymous reader adds:Today the Associated Press also called it "an outlier theory" being spread by president Trump and officials in his administration "without the weight of evidence." On Twitter, Eric Hundman, an Assistant Professor at NYU Shanghai, had stern words for anyone still spreading this misinformation. "Insinuating that the virus escaped from a lab in China by saying 'well, there's no evidence that it didn't' is not only untrue, it amounts to disinformation that could further ratchet up US-China tensions and distract from more urgent priorities. *There actually is scientific evidence against the "escaped from a lab" theory." He then cites five different scientists who wrote in Nature magazine that "We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible." In fact, "Most experts push back on the lab leak theory," CNN reported earlier this month. "I think it has no credibility," they were told byVincent Racaniello, a microbiology professor at Columbia University who hosts a podcast called "This Week in Virology." And they got the same response from Dr. Simon Anthony, a professor at the public health grad school of Columbia University and a key member of PREDICT. "It all feels far-fetched. Lab accidents do happen, we know that, but ... there's certainly no evidence to support that theory." That's also the opinion of America's intelligence community. Business Insider writes:The US intelligence community has also been investigating whether the virus was collected by researchers and then accidentally leaked from a Chinese lab but has found no evidence to date backing it up, according to Politico, which cited multiple sources familiar with the matter.Or, as Politico puts it:Congressional intelligence committees have been asking various agencies if hard evidence exists to support it. So far, there is none, multiple sources familiar with the matter told POLITICO.

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