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DISINFO: German study proves coronavirus was made in a lab

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

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coronavirus

DISINFO: German study proves coronavirus was made in a lab

SUMMARY

A study conducted by three German scientists shows that they have found evidence of laboratory origins for the coronavirus, and that 99.9% of the virus was made and produced in a laboratory.

RESPONSE

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin conspiracy theory about the artificial origins of coronavirus.

The study mentioned in the article is still a preprint and has not undergone peer review, which means it cannot change any established scientific consensus on the origins of the virus which is that Sars-CoV-2 was originally an animal-based disease that jumped to humans from bats somewhere in China. This remains the case until the study has been peer-reviewed and published in a reputable scientific journal.

In fact, this finding has been extensively debunked by the scientific community. For example, Hassan Vally, an associate professor in epidemiology at Deakin University in Australia, told Newsweek that "there seem to be flaws in the logic of this paper in terms of why one would stitch a whole genome together piece by piece to manufacture a virus". He added: "if you were doing what the authors are purporting happened, you would insert small amounts of manufactured genetic material into a largely intact virus genome and there would be no need to piece together a genome in small segments. This doesn't make sense and points to a fundamental flaw in this paper and the logic behind the interpretation".

Kristian G. Andersen, a professor of Immunology and Microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute in California, described the study on Twitter as "deeply flawed that it wouldn’t pass kindergarten molecular biology" and as "a clear example of motivated reasoning with a heavy dose of technobabble to make it sound legitimate - but it’s nothing more than poppycock dressed up as science".

Read similar cases of disinformation about dangerous US biological tests in Georgia and Ukraine, alleging that COVID-19 was released from a US lab, that the COVID-19 pandemic is a global conspiracy in the interests of the global elite, and that the Masters of Darkness invented the COVID-19 and seek world domination.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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