As always, my job to analytically disseminate information and to go where it takes us. Lost in the hyperactive coronavirus news cycle is seemingly a study just published in the medical journal Nature Medicine.
From the onset of the threat, I’ve shared the history of the virus with you. What we now call COVID-19, is one of seven coronaviruses which were first discovered by science in the 1960s. Four of the viruses are benign, the other three, MERS, SARS and what was known as CoV have the potential to be deadly. Because they’ve been known and studied for decades, if there were genetic manipulations to the viruses, scientists involved in research would know. Several renowned scientists stepped up to the plate to find out.
Without getting into the weeds with their scientific descriptions, the current strain is consistent with its cousins MERS and SARS, along with what was known of CoV. The little mutation that’s been monitored is consistent with what would naturally occur. In fact, their summation statement says, 'Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus'.
Now, does this mean that the reason it’s reared its ugly head didn’t come from something that escaped a lab? No, but it should dispel the myth that it was manipulated to be the threat it is today within one.
Photo by: Getty Images Europe