Coronavirus has already killed more than 1,000 people in China, and the death toll is expected to increase in the coming days. As authorities and medical experts are trying their best to control the spread of the virus, a section of conspiracy theorists has started claiming that Coronavirus is actually a secret bioweapon made by China.
Expert reaction on coronavirus conspiracy theories
As such kinds of baseless rumors spread like wildfire on the internet, experts have dismissed these views, and they have assured that Coronavirus is not a bioweapon.
"The virus does not meet the criteria of a biological weapon. A virus used as a bioweapon should kill between 20 and 30 percent of those infected," said Dr Andrzejem Horban, an infectious disease expert at the Provincial Infectious Hospital in Warsaw, Poland, Express.co.uk reports.
Dr David Jacobs, the co-founder of the Coalition of Ontario Doctors in Canada, in his recent tweet assured that the coronavirus is not made in the laboratory. He made it clear that coronavirus accounts for up to 20 percent cold cases every year.
Richard Ebright, an expert in chemical biology at Rutgers University also revealed that the virus genome and properties do not show any indication that it was made in a laboratory.
WHO and the Chinese ambassador reacts strongly
World Health Organization's Director also warned against the outlandish claims that are spreading across the internet regarding coronavirus. The director claimed that misinformation that is being spread about coronavirus is undoubtedly the most contagious thing about it.
"It's very harmful, it's very dangerous to stir up suspicion, rumors and spread them among the people. For one thing, this will create panic. Another thing is that it will fan up racial discrimination, xenophobia, all these things that will really harm our joint efforts to combat the virus," said Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the US.
