Coronavirus Man-Made in Wuhan Lab, Says Nobel Laureate
French virologist and Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier made the claim
French virologist and medicine Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier has made explosive revelations regarding the origin of the coronavirus, saying that the deadly virus was manufactured in a laboratory in China’s Wuhan.
Montagnier’s claims come at a time when the US has alleged the possibility of the virus originating in a lab in China. The theory that COVID-19 was created in a Chinese lab and “leaked” out to the world has been making the rounds since its outbreak in December 2019. President Donald Trump also fired a fresh salvo when he warned China of consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for the virus. China has refuted these allegations.
In an interview to a French news channel, Montagnier claimed that the virus, which causes the COVID-19 infection that is wreaking havoc around the world, was the result of an attempt to manufacture a vaccine against HIV in a Chinese lab.
Montagnier won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine along with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
According to reports, Montagnier alleged the presence of elements of HIV and germ of malaria in the genome of coronavirus is “highly suspect” and it “could not have arisen naturally”. The French researcher also alleged an “industrial accident” to have taken place in the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, which specialises in coronaviruses since the 2000s.
However, agencies have reported other researchers of rubbishing Montagnier’s claims, saying that it “does not make sense”. Another French virologist Étienne SimonLorière told AFP that “these are very small elements that are found in other viruses of the same family”.
The World Health Organization has also said that there is no evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus being created in a lab in China.
Who is Luc Montagnier
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008
Born: 18 August 1932, Chabris, France
Affiliation at the time of the award: World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, Paris, France
Prize motivation: "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus."
Prize share: 1/4
Work
Retroviruses are viruses whose genomes consist of RNA and whose genes can be incorporated into host cells' DNA. In 1983, Luc Montaigner and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi discovered a retrovirus in patients with swollen lymph glands that attacked lymphocytes - a kind of blood cell that is very important to the body's immune system. The retrovirus, later named Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), proved to be the cause of the immunodeficiency disease AIDS. This discovery has been crucial in radically improving treatment methods for AIDS sufferers.
