There are several assumptions about the emergence of Coronavirus. When China was the epicenter of COVID-19, most people said it is a biological war launched by US to thwart China’s supremacy. The tide has turned, US is now the most deadly hit country. All the assumptions have failed the test of the time. But we can not rule out one theory that the virus may have accidentally leaked from a lab – particularly Wuhan Lab.
It is scientifically proven that bats contain 20 to 400 types of Coronaviruses including SARS-CoV2 that causes COVID-19. The bats are also the carrier of Coronaviruses that cause MERS; and SARS, the disease responsible for the epidemic which China fought successfully in 2003.
It is not only an assumption but research studies also conclude that the Wuhan Institute of Virology might have collected the Coronavirus for scientific study and it might have accidentally spread through the scientists working there.
A prominent TV anchor of Pakistan, Dr. Moeed Pirzada also assumes in his Vlog that it is highly likely that Coronavirus accidentally leaked from Wuhan Lab. Though he said this theory is not final, he said we need some hypotheses to reach a conclusion.
Wuhan Institute of Virology: The Origin
Less than 300 yards from the seafood market is the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers from that facility and the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology have posted articles about collecting bat coronaviruses from around China, for study to prevent future illness.
Richard Ebright, a microbiologist, told a paper that “(it) could have occurred as a laboratory accident, with, for example, an accidental infection of a laboratory worker.” He noted that bat coronaviruses were studied in Wuhan at Biosafety Level 2, “which provides only minimal protection,” compared with the top BSL-4.
Surprisingly, a video of December 2019 from the Wuhan CDC shows staffers were collecting bat coronaviruses with inadequate and unsafe operational practices.
Rich Irony everyone should understand is more than likely Scientist at Chemical Lab in Wuhan, China who was doing experiments on bats…probably cruel experiments…was bitten by one those bats who lashed out at him/her who then went out into life and created worldwide pandemic! pic.twitter.com/7ZisQk9eu6
— Coaches Hot Seat (@CoachesHotSeat) April 3, 2020
In February, a Chinese scientist’s study was strangely withdrawn from the ResearchGate website.
The study concluded that “In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high-risk biohazardous laboratories,”
Read more: Mistakes in counting the coronavirus fatalities: Why this is a statistical challenge?
When the virus leaked, China quickly responded to the virus and averted it as they understood the gravity of the situation. Probably their research on Coronavirus helped them fight it. Unfortunately, US & Europe could not understand what it was and therefore, they are stuck in the quagmire of the pandemic. Of 106,000 plus COVID-19 deaths, about 85,000 have been reported in US, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK, Belgium, Switzerland and Netherlands
The widely circulated picture of Dean Koontz’s book predicts the pandemic caused by the Wuhan-400 virus is exaggerated but there is some reality on which the book’s claim is based. It is mentioned in the 1981 book “The Eyes of Darkness,”
“They call the stuff ‘Wuhan-400’ because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research center.”
Certainly, there existed RDNA labs in Wuhan in 1981 which the writer noticed were carrying out studies on viruses and he wrote a book on his suspicious assumption.
Like the writer, I can not say that the virus is a man-made weapon to kill the entire humanity but it is possible that the virus may have accidentally slipped from the Wuhan lab.
Read more: How New York surpassed Europe’s worst-hit countries in coronavirus deaths?
A collective effort must be made to investigate the origin of the virus so that it can be avoided in the future.
Fahad Aziz Taherani is Assistant Editor at Global Village Space (GVS) News Portal and Magazine. He has done Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resource Management, and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He has remained divisional Senior Vice President of PTI’s Insaf Students Federation (ISF). He has successfully founded multiple YouTube channels. He has a keen interest in Civil Superior Services of Pakistan.