Ignore the conspiracy theories: scientists know Covid-19 wasn't created in a lab | Peter Daszak

Instead of following false claims, we should be focusing our efforts on the regions where the next pandemic is likely to emerge

Peter Daszak is president of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit dedicated to analysing and preventing pandemics

In a recent interview with the Telegraph, the former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove cited an important" scientific report that suggested that the novel coronavirus had not emerged naturally, but had been created by Chinese scientists. Dearlove said he believed the pandemic had started as an accident" after the virus escaped the lab. A month earlier, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, had said he had enormous evidence" that Covid-19 had originated in a lab in China, only to backtrack from this claim on live TV in the same sentence.

Suggestions that Covid-19 is a manmade virus are the latest chapter in a tale of blame, misinformation and finger-pointing. Cue the conspiracy theorists, marching out their narrative about the high-security BSL-4 lab in Wuhan, where mysterious experiments to design frankenviruses" led to the tragic global pandemic. Cue the genetic analyses pointing to unexpected" insertions in the code of A, G, T, and C that explain how this virus could not have evolved naturally. Cue political posturing against China, with calls for an inquiry, trade sanctions and even reparations.