DISINFO: UN expert: COVID-19 is an American "witches' brew"
SUMMARY
Former UN expert said that the COVID-19 virus was created by the US in 2015. Virus-related research is going on in the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, which is allegedly similar to the Japanese WWII unit labelled 731, used to experiment with biological weapons. The Chinese state-run Global Times notes that the US is working on similar experiments in the Walter Reed Center, where the COVID-19 was born. Chinese authorities officially announced that the virus is of American origin, which is proven by the fact that the US launched an information war on China to emphasize that “anything bad originates from China.” The expert said that the Chinese do not have definitive proof, but “indirect facts indicate that the US has something to do with the creation of bacterial weapon.” One proof is that CDC head told the House of Representatives that in some autopsies in the US, they believed the patient died of the flu, but it was later found that they died of the coronavirus. Allegedly, this signals that the “zero patient” was from the US. The Chinese think that the US delegation sent to partake in the International Army Games in Wuhan was responsible for carrying the virus to China.
RESPONSE
Conspiracy theory about the 2019-nCoV coronavirus, based on recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about biological weapons. The narratives also resemble a recurring conspiracy theory about the Lugar Lab in Georgia. Reference to a commentator who is usually presented as a former inspector of the UN Commission on Chemical, Bacteriological and Biological Weapons. In this case, he is presented as a UN expert. According to Russian website “the Insider”, he has no connection with the UN. The virus "2019-nCoV” comes from a family of viruses that include the common cold and viruses such as SARS and MERS. There is no evidence to suggest it was developed artificially in a laboratory as a weapon of mass destruction. A group of public health scientists have condemned rumours and conspiracy theories about the origin of the coronavirus outbreak: "We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin." The authors of The Lancetstatement note that scientists from several countries who have studied SARS-CoV-2 “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife", just like many other viruses that have recently emerged in humans. There are numerous similar disinformation cases about coronavirus claiming that coronavirus was created in a laboratory, or that it is an Anglo-Saxon biological warning, a US provocation against China, a tool to weaken the Chinese economy, and an attempt by the Anglo-Saxons to control China. Additionally, there is no evidence that the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was conducting experiments on biological weapons, and especially not ones similar to the abuses committed by Unit 731. On a hearing on COVID-19 in the House, Robert Redfield did admit that some influenza deaths were the results of a COVID-19 infection, but he did not say when these misdiagnoses occurred; thus, there is no proof that the so-called "zero patient" was in the United States.