[Jeff Lebowski]

Covid-19 genome expert scoffs at lab leak theory
Australian scientist who genetically mapped Covid-19 says there is no evidence it was manmade in a Chinese lab, a conspiracy theory the US government is now testing

Edward Holmes, a biologist at the University of Sydney and a fellow of the respected Royal Society in London, said the Wuhan laboratory blamed by some for the pandemic does have specimens of the bat virus RaTG13, the closest relative of Covid-19 source SARS-CoV-2, but the two are not genetically linked.

RaTG13 strains, he says, are from the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, not the central city of Wuhan, the pandemic’s initial epicenter.

“There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 in humans, originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” said Holmes, who is a specialist in evolutionary biology, said in an April 16 statement.

https://asiatimes.com/2020/04/covid-...b-leak-theory/

As factions inside President Donald Trump's orbit have been floating theories about the novel coronavirus originating in a Chinese bio-research lab, U.S. scientists are hardening their belief that the virus emerged naturally, citing expanded research as proof.

"There's no reason to believe this was made in a lab," Dr. Robert Shafer, professor of Infectious Diseases at Stanford Medical School, told ABC News. "There are many strains in nature that could cause this type of outbreak."

Dr. Robert Garry, a professor at the Tulane School of Medicine, authored one of the first major studies that refutes theories that COVID-19 was engineered as a biological weapon. He told ABC News the new focus of this research has been a special mutation that is thought to be what makes this coronavirus so contagious.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/scient...ry?id=70207409