Scientists condemn coronavirus conspiracy theory

A group of 27 prominent public health scientists from outside China is pushing back against a steady stream of stories and even a scientific paper suggesting a laboratory in Wuhan, China, may be the origin of the outbreak of COVID-19, writes Jon Cohen for Science.

“The rapid, open and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins,” the scientists, from nine countries, wrote in a statement published online by The Lancet. The letter does not criticise any specific assertions about the origin of the outbreak, but many posts on social media have singled out the Wuhan Institute of Virology for intense scrutiny because it has a laboratory at the highest security level – biosafety level 4 – and its researchers study coronaviruses from bats, including the one that is closest to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Speculations have included the possibility that the virus was bioengineered in the lab or that a lab worker was infected while handling a bat and then transmitted the disease to others outside the lab. Researchers from the institute have insisted there is no link between the outbreak and their laboratory. “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin,” says the statement, which praises the work of Chinese health professionals as “remarkable” and encourages others to sign on as well.
Full report on the Science site