Weapons and escape from the laboratory: the most popular coronavirus conspiracy theories

Semen Yesilevsky, biophysicist, doctor of physical and mathematical sciences, leading researcher at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences and the scholarship program named after Marie Curie at the University of Burgundy Franche-Comté, France, told why one should not trust the talk that the coronavirus was created artificially. Writes about it "Voice of America".

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According to the biophysicist, talk that the coronavirus could have been created artificially is unsubstantiated rumors and should not be believed.

“In order to say that it was created, there must be at least some evidence. We can say anything unfounded, including that the Moon is made of cheese, but without evidence it is worth nothing. To date, there is no scientific evidence that would withstand at least some scientific criticism. This is just a conspiracy theory in its purest form,” says Yesilevsky.

But this theory has become very widespread only because people want to somehow control the situation.

“Conspiracy theories attract people because they give them some semblance of control over the situation. Any person is uncomfortable in situations over which he has no control. There are people for whom this discomfort results in them trying to find some kind of external force that controls everything in order to relieve themselves of responsibility. This calms people down psychologically. The appearance of this intensifies during periods of upheaval, global cataclysms and stress, so, naturally, conspiracy theories intensify,” says the scientist.

There are two main “versions” of the origin of the coronavirus COVID-19: it was created artificially or it “escaped” from the laboratory.

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“If we talk about the “harsh” version - that this virus was created as some kind of biological weapon - then it is untenable, if only because this virus turned out to be a very bad weapon. Viruses that have been used as biological weapons are not as lethal as the coronavirus. Anyone, even if they have little understanding of biology, can simply google what, for example, anthrax is, and be impressed by what this virus is, or what, for example, pneumonic plague is. These are viruses with colossal lethality, which exceeds well over 50 percent. If the current strain was created as a weapon, then those who created it should be fired, because it’s just hack work,” says Yesilevsky. — The second version is based on the fact that one of the co-authors of the work, who created chimeric viruses in 2015, worked in Wuhan at a university in the very region where this coronavirus originated. But if you are researching bat viruses - and this was a work about a bat virus - then it is quite logical to establish laboratories where, firstly, these bats are found, so that not halfway around the world, but, secondly, where from These bats are in for some trouble. In China, this all coincides, because bats breed there in large numbers, they are eaten there, sold in markets, and there have already been cases of transmission of infection from bats to people. Where else to found a zoological laboratory for the study of bat viruses if not there? And this version turns everything upside down. They say that since they were studied, this means confirmation that the virus came from a laboratory.”

And the reason for the need to create a laboratory for the study of bat viruses exactly where there is a problem with them, in Wuhan, was that keeping bats in an artificial environment is quite difficult.

“The fact is that it is quite difficult to keep bats in laboratory conditions. This is not an ordinary mouse, not a rat or hamster. There is a lot of hassle with them. It is almost impossible to keep some species of bats in the laboratory; they must be caught somewhere, and it is advisable to be in a place where they are easy to catch and where there are already many of them. This explains everything,” says Semyon.

In addition, the virus could not “escape” from the laboratory, it was necessary that someone infected them and infect others.

“In order for the virus to “escape”, it must find a carrier, since the virus is not a living creature, it is just RNA in a shell. It must reach the carrier. If the carrier is a person, then, naturally, it is necessary for the person to become infected. It is possible that it will infect some animal. In virology laboratories of this class, the third or fourth class of protection, which work with pathogenic human viruses, there are a number of protection solutions so that these viruses cannot “escape,” the scientist says. — All material is recycled. We worked with, say, a bat, it died - it was burned to ashes. No biomaterial gets out, everything dissolves. Everything is disinfected: at the entrance, at the exit, bioprotection suits, “cosmonauts”, as they are called. For each laboratory protection class there are certain protocols by which all this must be done. No one rules out bungling, and it cannot be said that this could never happen, but it is very unlikely.”

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Also, the use of any kind of virus as a biological weapon, as conceived by many conspiracy theories, is also impractical, since the spread of the virus cannot be controlled.

“The main problem with biological weapons is that it is not clear how to protect the one who uses them. This is either simply a total genocide of all humanity, or it will not work normally, there is no third option. In science fiction, you can find many solutions to this issue, and biosafety experts have also thought about it. One option is to create viruses that, for example, selectively infect people with a certain type. For example, a certain race, a certain nationality, and so on. But this idea does not work, if only because the races are not so different from each other as to cause selectivity of the virus, says Yesilevsky. And, secondly, simply because there are no purebred people, so to speak, practically anywhere in the world. Everything is mixed up one way or another. Moreover, it is impossible to find a single infection in human history that selectively affects one race. All infections affect everyone.”

It is also impossible to create a vaccine that would completely and certainly protect against the virus.

“The simplest thing is to lock yourself in a bunker and wait until everyone dies, and then come out. Among the logical options: injecting yourself with an antidote that will prevent you from getting sick, this is from the same realm of science fiction. We must understand that the virus mutates. The virus that you launch will, after some time, no longer be exactly the same one that you launched: some kind of hybridization may occur with some other bat virus, and something third will result. No one guarantees that your antidote, even if we miraculously created it, will save you from this hybrid. It’s like opening Pandora’s box and continuing to play Russian roulette,” the scientist shares.

According to Ysilevsky, all the data so far discovered indicate that the virus appeared in Wuhan.

“According to the data that exists, it seems that he really appeared there. Not a single case of infection has been traced before and it is not clear where it could have been imported from. Moreover, when the genome of the virus was analyzed, it was most similar to the genome of Chinese bats, not some other animals and not from another country. From all this we can conclude that he appeared there,” says Yesilevsky.

The journal Nature recently published the results of a study according to which no signs of modification are noticeable in the coronavirus, indicating its natural origin. And according to the scientist, if this were not so, then it would certainly be visible.

“Imagine looking at a photoshopped picture and trying to prove that it’s a fake. If you look at this picture pixel by pixel under a microscope, then if it is not done very well, you can see interference. You can notice retouching, incorrectly positioned shadows, blurred images, and so on. About the same thing happens when there are genetic modifications. It is quite difficult to make a genetic modification of the virus so that the ears do not stick out that it was made artificially. Experts say that this is almost impossible,” says the scientist.

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That is, if this strain was artificially created, then it would be noticeable, since there is no evidence for this and since it is so similar to the bat virus, it means it appeared naturally.

“Yes, with a high probability, this is the result of a natural process. There is a maxim: you cannot prove that something does not exist, you cannot prove that it is not made artificially. You can only prove a positive statement, not a negative one. But, as I already said, if this is done artificially, the one who did it will get a bad mark and get out of class. This was done carelessly,” says Yesilevsky.

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