French Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier stirred controversy after he claimed in an interview with French CNews channel that the coronavirus has come from Wuhan’s lab, which was tested to develop a vaccine against the AIDS virus, as per media reports.
During the podcast by Pourquoi Docteur, professor Montagnier who co-discovered HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), claimed the presence of elements of HIV in the genome of the coronavirus and even elements of the "germ of malaria" are highly suspect, according to a report in Asia Times.
"The Wuhan city laboratory has specialized in these coronaviruses since the early 2000s. They have expertise in this area," he was quoted as saying.
Related Stories
Australia calls for global inquiry on the origin of Covid-19 independent of WHO
The theory of the virus originated from Wuhan’s lab has been doing rounds across the world. Last week, Donald Trump had also extended his acknowledgement to a Fox News report that said the coronavirus may have been accidentally leaked by an intern working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.
The exclusive report by the Fox News based on the unnamed sources claimed that though the stain of the virus occurs naturally in bats and is not a bio-weapon, it was studied in China’s infamous laboratory in Wuhan.
The initial transmission of the virus was bat-to-human, the news channel alleged. It added that the “patient zero” worked at the laboratory. The lab employee was accidentally infected before spreading the disease among the common people outside the lab in Wuhan city.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.