From my understanding there appears to be some merit in the possibility that the Wuhan lab was studying a natural covid virus in bats and it leapt from a bat to another animal then to a researcher at the lab. Is this the correct understanding ?

e: Ok I understand, it’s just a theory with nothing supporting it. I don’t read the MSM but most everyone (even leftists) seemed to give some credence to this theory.

my b

  • S4ck [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    https://healthfeedback.org/what-is-known-about-the-claims-that-the-wuhan-institute-of-virology-conducted-research-to-bioengineer-bat-coronaviruses/

    The closest known relative to SARS-CoV-2 is yet another bat coronavirus, called RaTG13, which was discovered after miners in the Yunnan Province of China developed pneumonia[6]. The group of researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology collected and sequenced RaTG13. The genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 is 96% similar to that of RaTG13[6]. As a Health Feedback review from March 2021 pointed out, this genetic gap between RaTG13 and SARS-CoV-2 is too wide to be bridged by engineering.

    In the same review, Robert Garry, a professor of microbiology at the University of Tulane, concurred: “While 96% sounds close, in evolutionary terms, it is quite distant, and it would take decades of evolution for the genome of RaTG13 to resemble that of SARS-CoV-2. The difference is about 1,200 bases or 400 amino acids. Gain-of-function research cannot close that gap.” He added, “This would require a virus much closer than RaTG13, at least 99% similar or more likely 99.9% similar.”