A world renowned Russian microbiologist says that the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of Wuhan scientists doing "absolutely crazy things" in their laboratory.
Dr. Peter Chumakov of the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology and Russian Academy of Sciences claims that while the Wuhan scientists' goal in creating the coronavirus was not malicious - instead, they were trying to study the pathogenicity of the virus, according to the Daily Mail.
"In China, scientists at the Wuhan Laboratory have been actively involved in the development of various coronavirus variants for over ten years," he said. "Moreover, they did this, supposedly not with the aim of creating pathogenic variants, but to study their pathogenicity."
"They did absolutely crazy things, in my opinion," he said, adding " For example, inserts in the genome, which gave the virus the ability to infect human cells. Now all this has been analyzed."
'The picture of the possible creation of the current coronavirus is slowly emerging.'
He told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper: 'There are several inserts, that is, substitutions of the natural sequence of the genome, which gave it special properties.
'It is interesting that the Chinese and Americans who worked with them published all their works in the open (scientific) press.
'I even wonder why this background comes to people very slowly.
'I think that an investigation will nevertheless be initiated, as a result of which new rules will be developed that regulate the work with the genomes of such dangerous viruses.
Chumakov suggested that Chinese scientists were possibly searching for an HIV vaccine.
The Mail notes that the professor works for Russia's Federal Research Center for Research and Development of Immunobiological Preparations - while Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, advised against speculation that the virus was manmade.
"In the situation where there is not enough information that has been supported and checked by science ... we think it is unacceptable, impossible, to groundlessly accuse anyone," said Peskov.
Meanwhile, the head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological agency, Veronika Skvortsova, told Russia's Channel One "This question is not that easy. It demands a very thorough study," adding "None of the versions can be ruled out."
"We can see that a fairly large number of fragments distinguishes this virus from its very close relative, SARS," Skvortsova added. "They are approximately 94 per cent similar, the rest is different… I think that we must conduct a very serious research.
China Denies US Request For Access To Wuhan Lab Which May Be Source Of Coronavirus Pandemic
The request comes amid a US investigation into whether the Wuhan coronavirus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where they were conducting a host of experiments on bat coronavirus - and had collected bats in a cave over 1,000 miles away in Yunnan which carried COVID-19.
"There are multiple labs inside of China that are handling these things," Pompeo said on Wednesday at the State Department. "It’s important that those materials are being handled in a safe and secure way such that there isn’t accidental release."
"We have to make sure that the Chinese Government is handling those materials in an appropriate way not only in the Wuhan Institute of Virology but elsewhere," Pompeo added, according to the report.
"Any objective person will see that some U.S. politicians have beenpeddling lies that discredit China's anti-epidemic efforts to fuddle people's minds and deflect attention from the fact that they fell short of fulfilling their own anti-epidemic responsibilities," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Thursday in response to Pompeo's call for inspections at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other Chinese labs studying coronaviruses and other pathogens.
Beijing has refuted claims that COVID-19 originated in a laboratory. Intelligence operatives have begun gathering information about the Wuhan lab and are piecing together a timeline of the events following the outbreak.
U.S. officials told Fox News they have ruled out the possibility of a man-made coronavirus to be used as a bioweapon. Instead, they believe it was part of China's attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States,
Some officials believe China purposefully covered up the virus and that the World Health Organization (WHO) is complicit. President Trump took aim at the WHO over its role in the crisis and announced last week that the U.S. will halt all funding to the group, saying it had put "political correctness over lifesaving measures." -Fox News
On Wednesday, Pompeo told "The Ingraham Angle" that the World Health Organization (WHO) had dropped the ball in helping the United States gather critical data from China.
"Look, we know it began at one [lab], but we need to figure this out," he said, adding "There's an ongoing pandemic. We still don't have the transparency and openness we need in China."
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