چوروناۏيروس: تيوري كونسڤيرسي هوجني فاچبووق، تويتتر
Numerous social media posts have surfaced claiming that the 2019 novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, was made in a lab and that a vaccine already exists.
The claims, fast sweeping through Facebook and Twitter, even go so far as to allege that the virus was in development since 2003 and patented in 2015.
Researchers are still working to understand the origin, spread and severity of the 2019-nCoV. The outbreak began in early December in Wuhan, a city of around 11 million people in central China.
Evidence suggests the virus likely spilled over to humans from an as-yet-unidentified animal, as has happened in the past for other coronaviruses.
PETALING JAYA: Numerous social media posts have surfaced claiming that the 2019 novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, was made in a lab and that a vaccine already exists.
The claims, fast sweeping through Facebook and Twitter, even go so far as to allege that the virus was in development since 2003 and was patented in 2015.
Yet another proposes a similar conspiracy. “So.. patent on this ‘new’ Corona virus expired on the 22nd, today,” the post says. “We have a sudden outbreak. There’s magically already a vaccine available.”
In fact, not only is there no vaccine available as of yet for the 2019 novel coronavirus, there isn’t a patent related to the new virus either.
All the posts link to patents that are related to two different viruses in the coronavirus family.
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that tend to cause respiratory illnesses in humans and a variety of other illnesses in animals.
The name comes from the crown, or corona-like appearance of infective viruses when seen under a microscope.
Researchers are still working to understand the origin, spread and severity of the 2019-nCoV. The outbreak began in early December in Wuhan, a city of around 11 million people in central China.
Evidence suggests the virus likely spilled over to humans from an as-yet-unidentified animal, as has happened in the past for other coronaviruses.
The SARS virus, for instance, is thought to have come from bats, and then spread to humans through civets, a catlike animal eaten as a delicacy in Asia.
The SARS virus then proved to be transmissible from person to person.
THE THIRD FORCE
