Covid-19 may have really been a man-made virus

Since the emergence of the Covid-19 virus in late 2019, there have been innumerable theories as to its origin. Some say it was a natural virus that showed up suddenly in Wuhan, China, while others firmly believe that it was artificially made. Well, a US-based scientist named Andrew Huff has recently revealed that it was most definitely the second option and that coronavirus was bred in a controversial research lab in the same location. Not only that, he has also stated that this ‘man-made virus’ was intentionally leaked from the facility, a revelation that has shaken the scientist community recently. Interestingly, he himself was working at the lab at the time of this outbreak. Also, it’s nothing new that the Wuhan lab has been at the centre of controversy since the advent of Covid-19, with all stakeholders, starting from the Chinese government to the lab officials denying responsibility.  

Well, for starters, the name of the lab where Covid-19 originated is called Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and it is a state-run and funded research facility to study all kinds of viruses. Apart from making a statement to New York Post and the British newspaper The Sun, epidemiologist Huff also lays down the same in his latest book The Truth About Wuhan. He has also mentioned in his book that the pandemic was a result of the US government’s funding of breeding coronaviruses in China. Huff’s book also claims that most gain-of-function experiments in China, like that with coronavirus is often conducted under inadequate security, thus leading to such leaks. In addition, he has revealed how there were as such no proper control measures in place that would have ensured biosafety, biosecurity and risk management.  

What’s more interesting is that, WIV has been researching coronavirus variants in bats for over ten years with funds coming in from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that is one of the primary agencies of the US government responsible for biomedical and public health research. Besides NIH, a New York-based non-profit called EcoHealth Alliance that specialises in analysing infectious diseases also had close ties with the Wuhan facility and it was here where Huff worked for the former Vice President (from 2014 to 2016). No wonder he is qualified to make the statements that he has been doing for some time.  

Huff’s book has also revealed that EcoHealth Alliance in collaboration with WIV was busy developing “the best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species” for years; and China was very well aware of this genetically engineered agent that soon took the shape of a bioweapon.  

A latest investigation by US-based ProPublica/ Vanity Fair also revealed how WIV has been under a lot of pressure by the Chinese Communist Party to generate scientific breakthroughs, despite the risks involved.