The British documentary used scientists to provide “convincing” evidence to support the argument that the new crown virus escaped from the Wuhan laboratory. The picture shows the Wuhan laboratory. Picture: Retrieved from Weibo (data photo)
There are still divergent opinions about the origin of the new crown virus. China has repeatedly criticized the idea that the virus escaped from the Wuhan laboratory is a “conspiracy theory.” However, British television recently aired a documentary, interviewing data analysts and scientists’ findings, and supporting the hypothesis that the virus escaped from the laboratory with “convincing” evidence. The Chinese Embassy in the UK jumped in protest, accusing the British television station of distorting the facts and demanding corrections.
According to comprehensive foreign media reports, Channel 4 recently aired the documentary “Did Covid Leak from a Lab in China?” (Did Covid Leak from a Lab in China), which recorded a group of scientists on the origin of the new coronavirus. In the investigation, they used public genetic databases and the Internet to trace the origin of the virus, exposing information that the Wuhan laboratory did not disclose.
Many studies believe that there is no evidence to prove that the virus is man-made, but scientists told the documentary filmmakers that based on the available evidence, this statement is wrong.
Scientists interviewed by the documentary also found that the Wuhan team has been studying a virus since 2013. This virus is the closest virus to the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) ever found, when it was in a mine in Yunnan, China. It was discovered that horseshoe bats had carried this virus, which caused 3 deaths.
Scientists believe that this virus may have been genetically modified in the laboratory and transmitted to laboratory personnel. The documentary also criticized China’s gain-of-function (GOF) research in recent years, such as genetic modification of viruses to make them more toxic or more infectious.
Nikolai Petrovsky, director of endocrinology at Flinders University in Australia, described GOF research as “a place where monsters you fear are created.” He pointed out that he has determined that the new coronavirus is synthesized to infect humans. Petrovsky and the research team used computer models to test which species the virus binds most closely, and they found that it was human. He believes that the virus should have grown in human cells or humanized mice before it escapes, and has undergone multiple generations of evolution to confirm that it can infect humans.
Petrovsky emphasized that it is very unusual for the new coronavirus to spread quickly around the world before it mutates. “When the first case appeared, the virus had already fully adapted to humans. This could explain why it spread rapidly, because The virus does not need to adapt.”
After the documentary was broadcast, the Chinese Embassy in the UK issued a statement criticizing the content of the distorted facts, stating that China had already presented a number of evidences to prove that the virus was not man-made, and requested that the UK TV 4 should report it fairly.
There are still divergent opinions about the origin of the new crown virus. China has repeatedly criticized the idea that the virus escaped from the Wuhan laboratory is a “conspiracy theory.”
However, British television recently aired a documentary, interviewing data analysts and scientists’ findings, and supporting the hypothesis that the virus escaped from the laboratory with “convincing” evidence.
The Wuhan P4 laboratory has always been considered one of the sources of the new coronavirus. Now the US intelligence agency is reviewing a database containing a large amount of genetic data, which may be the key to uncovering the origin of Wuhan pneumonia.Picture: Retrieved from People’s Daily Online
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