WHO expert rules out artificial origin of COVID-19

Russian virologist and expert at the World Health Organization Dmitry Lvov rules out the man-made origin of Covid and said that the concerns over the artificial origins of COVID-19 do not have any value.

In a Russian television program held last week, the virologist clarified that coronaviruses are primarily viruses associated with bats. He suggested the virus could have first infected a human who was in a room where a bat spent the night or in a cave where bats usually live in large numbers.

Lvov added that roughly 150 viruses have been transmitted to humans from animals during the domestication of wild animals.

He further suggested other possibilities such as a person could have eaten some meat from animals that have ecological ties with bats, thus becoming the first source of infections.

There are growing demands by a number of countries including the US and Australia to investigate whether the virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 from an animal source or from a laboratory accident in December 2019.

Last month, US President Joe Biden hadhad ordered the intelligence agencies in the country to ramp up their efforts in collecting and analysing information that would help in ascertaining whether COVID-19 originated due to human contracting the virus from infected animals or whether it was a result of an accident in a laboratory. According to a report in IE, the President is scheduled to get a report on this issue within 90 days.