The well-known Russian Professor Peter Chumakov said that the aim of Chinese scientists was to study the pathogenicity of the virus. But he clarified that it was not their intention to deliberately create a man-made killer.
Who is Peter M Chumakov?
He is the Chief researcher at the Russian Capital, Moscow-based institution, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, which was founded on April 26, 1957, by Vladimir Engelgardt who became its first director of the country. He is also connected to Russia's Federal Research Centre for Research and Development of Immunobiological Preparations.
Prof Peter M Chumakov said that in China, where the Coronavirus outbreak first emerged, Wuhan laboratory scientists have been actively involved in the development of various Coronavirus variants for over ten years. As per the reports, the Russian microbiologist mentioned that the scientists did this, supposedly not with the aim of creating pathogenic variants which could destroy the world but to study their pathogenicity.
"They did absolutely crazy things, in my opinion. For example, inserts in the genome, which gave the virus the ability to infect human cells. Now all this has been analysed. The picture of the possible creation of the current coronavirus is slowly emerging," Prof Chumakov added.
As reported by the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, he stated that there are several inserts as the substitutions of the natural sequence of the genome which gave it special properties. As per Chumakov, the interesting fact is experts from China and the US who worked with them published all their works in the open press. In addition, he said,
"I even wonder why this background comes to people very slowly. I think that an investigation will nevertheless be initiated, as a result of which new rules will be developed that regulate the work with the genomes of such dangerous viruses. It's too early to blame anyone."
Virus created in China
While talking to the local newspaper, Chumakov mentioned that Chinese scientists had created variants of the virus but they did not have a malicious intention to let the virus spread all over the globe and infect millions of people.
Just like the French Nobel-winning scientist Luc Montagnier, the Russian scientist also claimed that these Wuhan researchers were possibly aiming for an HIV vaccine while studying the deadly virus. But he mentioned that "No one excludes that behind the scientists stood curators who directed actions in another direction which they needed." But while opposing the claim made by the French scientist, an official at France President Emmanuel Macron's office said:
We would like to make it clear that there is to this day no factual evidence corroborating the information recently circulating in the United States press that establishes a link between the origins of COVID-19 and the work of the P4 laboratory of Wuhan, China.
However, recently, Russia President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson warned against the allegations that Coronavirus was man-made. The Kremlin Press Secretary, Dmitry Peskov said, "In the situation where there is not enough information that has been supported and checked by science... we think it is unacceptable, impossible, to groundlessly accuse anyone."
Earlier the head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA), Veronika Skvortsova, who is also Putin's former health minister, commented on the claims behind man-made Coronavirus and said "This question is not that easy. It demands a very thorough study," reported Russia's Channel One.
The US has been accusing China of covering up Coronavirus outbreak and misleading the world while adding that the deadly Coronavirus which has killed over 190,000 people originated from a lab in Wuhan. But there is no scientific evidence to support such claims and China has already denied such allegations.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently accused the Asian country of destroying coronavirus samples as part of a cover-up during the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. He told media:
It covered up how dangerous the disease is. It didn't report sustained human-to-human transmission for a month until it was in every province inside of China, it censored those who tried to warn the world in order to halt the testing of new samples, and it destroyed existing samples.
