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DISINFO: Chinese paper: Coronavirus came out of Wuhan lab

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

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coronavirus Virus / bacteria threat Biological weapons Conspiracy theory

DISINFO: Chinese paper: Coronavirus came out of Wuhan lab

SUMMARY

Two Chinese biologists concluded that the source of the virus (coronavirus) was the scientific laboratories located in Wuhan, 280 metres from the seafood market.

RESPONSE

Conspiracy theory about the 2019-nCoV coronavirus.There is no evidence to suggest that the virus has been fabricated inside laboratories. The expert scientific consensus holds that the coronavirus has natural origins; there is no evidence supporting claims of laboratory engineering. The study that was made by Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao entitled “The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus” as part of the “circumstantial evidence that supports the possibility that a lab release was involved”. But later on YANZHONG HUANG, a Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, who directs the Global Health Governance Roundtable said “the paper was later removed from ResearchGate, a commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers”,..., “Thus far, no scientists have confirmed or refuted the paper’s findings”. Xiao even told the Wall Street Journal in an email from 26 February that he had withdrawn his paper: “The speculation about the possible origins in the post was based on published papers and media, and was not supported by direct proofs." After paper received media attention in the West, Chinese authorities and its state media firmly denied that there had been any lab accident. You can see other examples of this narrative in our database, such as claims thatBill Gates andGeorge Soros are sponsoring the coronavirus, that it is aUK,US orNATO creation and that the Americans haveits cure, that it isan artificial disease which specificallytargets Chinese DNA, that it was createdwith economic goals whilebig pharma companies are spreading panic for their own profit, that it is a biological weaponagainst Russia and China, that it willwipe out Ukraine’s population in a few days or that it was predicted byNostradamus and others.

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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