Coronavirus myth or reality: 3 reasons why COVID-19 outbreak started in China

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Related: Global coronaphobia test

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Wuhan is a city of more than 11 million people in the central province of Hubei – China. It gained global media attention after identified as global epicenter of coronavirus or simply COVID-19. Since then there are many rumors, myths and conspiracy theories about reasons behind COVID-19 outbreak related to this city, circulating in cyber space.

Time will draw the differential line between myths and realities about how coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan – China. However one thing that is crystal-clear about coronavirus attack is it originated from Wuhan. A careful research done by Global Intelligentsia team has revealed 3 main reasons behind COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan – coronavirus global epicenter. Here is the short description and commentary over these reasons related to coronavirus attack.

Reason # 1

COVID-19 was engineered as a biological weapon

It is generally believed that COVID-19 or coronavirus was being engineered in the Wuhan Institute of Virology to use it as a biological weapon in future but went wrong.

Commentary

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is administered by Chinese Academy of Sciences established in 1956. COVID-19 was engineered as a biological weapon in this lab is a theory that has both arguments and anti-arguments. Arguments are as under

• China is an emerging global super power. Every super power uses some tactics to make its defense line unbeatable. Human history reveals that in past other super powers too had used biological weapon.
• China is not allowing WHO researchers full access to this lab. It makes the situation more dubious which strengthens the said theory.
• The first verified patient was a graduate student from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Counter arguments have their own weightage as they go

• China would have other viruses to engineer as biological weapon as some other viruses are more lithic for human being.
• Genome collected by neutral researchers from Wuhan lab looks natural rather than engineered one

Above arguments and counter-arguments are equally convincing both blocks. So, further research will answer whether coronavirus or COVID-19 was engineered as a biological weapon or not.

Reason # 2

Coronavirus escaped from Wuhan lab

2^nd reason why coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan is virus was under test in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and escaped outside due to poor safety measurements. Following arguments favor this narrative.

• Researchers of the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been doing research on coronavirus since 2003.
• COVID-19 genome collected from coronavirus patients is 96% similar to a sample under research in this institute.

However opposite arguments too have reasons to be believed. These are

• The Wuhan Institute of Virology has biosafety level 4 which makes it not less than any first class lab established in USA and Europe in terms of safety measurements.
• Current epicenter of coronavirus is Italy which has no links to Wuhan lab. In this situation, we can safely assume that COVID-19 did not escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Comparative research done on variety of samples of coronavirus collected from different locations across the globe will answer better whether COVID-19 escaped from Wuhan Lab or not.

Reason # 3

COVID-19 transmitted from animal to human

The Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan is the most suspected epicenter of global coronavirus outbreak. It is the largest seafood wholesale market in central China. This market is famous for wild animals purchase. Total 120 wild animals including pigs, dogs, snakes, rats, crocodiles, sheep, bats, donkeys, wolves and pangolins are sold in this market. It is strongly believed that COVID-19 transmitted from animals in this market to humans who touched these animals and went out at global scale.

Following points are enough to prove that Novel Coronavirus transmitted from Wuhan seafood market.

• Latest researches about reasons behind COVID-19 outbreak conclude that primary host of coronavirus are bats whereas pangolins and snakes are considered to be intermediate hosts of COVID-19. All these animals are sold in Huanan Seafood Market.
• Chinese authorities closed this market on January 1, 2020 as two-third out of 41 confirmed COVID-19 patients at that time had links to this market.

Counter narrative can be justified as

• There is a short distance between The Huanan Seafood Market and The Wuhan Institute of Virology. It is possible that COVID-19 escaped from lab and entered the seafood market.
• Genome taken from patients is very identical to the genome collected from horseshoe bats under research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

There are ample evidence to safely say that the Huanan Seafood Market is the most suspected place on globe COVID-19 originated from.