A British professor suggested to the UN on Wednesday that COVID-19 might have originated from a Chinese laboratory, the NY Post reported. Another expert supported this claim, saying the evidence has reached “the level of a smoking gun.”
Molecular Biologist Richard H. Ebright suggests COVID-19 could have originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology
Richard H. Ebright, a biologist from Rutgers University, published his findings in a recent Wall Street Journal article. He suggested that researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology could have intentionally created the deadly virus. He referred to a document from the lab in 2018 discussing the development of such a virus as evidence.
The documents referenced by Ebright contained drafts and notes related to a grant proposal named Project DEFUSE. This project aimed to experiment with modifying bat coronaviruses to enhance their ability to spread among humans.
“[The document] elevates the evidence provided by the genome sequence from the level of noteworthy to the level of a smoking gun,” Ebright said in the piece by Times editor Nicholas Wade.
Wade suggested that similar research might have been conducted by scientists in Wuhan who received support from the Chinese government.
“Viruses made according to the DEFUSE protocol could have been available by the time Covid-19 broke out, sometime between August and November 2019,” wrote Wade. “This would account for the otherwise unexplained timing of the pandemic along with its place of origin.”
Genetic makeup of COVID-19 supports lab-origin theory, say experts
The Times author also argued that the particular genetic makeup of the coronavirus, which enabled it to infect humans, further supported the theory of “the virus’s laboratory birth.”
“Whereas most viruses require repeated tries to switch from an animal host to people, SARS-CoV-2 infected humans out of the box. As if it had been preadapted while growing in the humanized mice called for in the DEFUSE protocol,” Wade wrote.
Ebright stated that there was clearer evidence indicating the virus could have originated in a lab, as reported by the Daily Telegraph. This happened after the 2018 documents were released by US Right to Know through a Freedom of Information Act request.
