HAMBURG (Universität Hamburg press service) – For more than a year, the coronavirus has been causing a worldwide crisis. In a study, nanoscientist Prof. Dr. Roland Wiesendanger has now shed light on the origin of the virus. He comes to the conclusion that both the number and the quality of the circumstantial evidence point to a laboratory accident at the virological institute of the city of Wuhan as the cause of the current pandemic.

Prof. Dr. Roland Wiesendanger

Wiesendanger is three-time awardee of the European Research Council Advanced Grant. He has authored or co-authored more than 600 scientific publications as well as several books.
(Photo: Sebastian Engels)

The study was conducted between January 2020 and December 2020. It is based on an interdisciplinary scientific approach and extensive research using a wide range of information sources. These include scientific literature, articles in print and online media, and personal communication with international colleagues. It does not provide highly scientific evidence, but it does provide ample and strong circumstantial evidence:

• In contrast to previous coronavirus-related epidemics such as SARS and MERS, no intermediate host animal could be identified to date, i.e. well over a year after the outbreak of the current pandemic, which could have enabled the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 pathogens from bats to humans. The zoonosis theory as a possible explanation for the pandemic therefore has no sound scientific basis.

• The SARS-CoV-2 viruses can couple amazingly well to human cell receptors and penetrate human cells. This is made possible by special cell receptor binding domains combined with a special (furin) cleavage site of the coronavirus spike protein. Both properties together were previously unknown in coronaviruses and indicate a non-natural origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen.

• Bats were not offered at the suspected fish market in the centre of Wuhan city. However, the Wuhan City Virological Institute has one of the world’s largest collections of bat pathogens, which originate from distant caves in southern Chinese provinces. It is extremely unlikely that bats from this distance of nearly 2,000 km would have naturally made their way to Wuhan, only to cause a global pandemic in the immediate vicinity of this virological institute.

• A research group at the Wuhan Virological Institute has been genetically manipulating coronaviruses for many years with the aim of making them more infectious, dangerous and deadly to humans. This is documented in the scientific literature by numerous publications.

• There were considerable safety deficiencies in the virological institute of the city of Wuhan even before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which have been documented.

• There are numerous direct indications of a laboratory origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen. For example, a young female scientist at the virology institute in Wuhan is said to have been the first to be infected. There are also numerous indications that the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen has already spread from the virological institute in the city of Wuhan and beyond in October 2019. There is also evidence of a related investigation of the virological institute by Chinese authorities in the first half of October 2019.

Prof. Dr. Roland Wiesendanger says:

The current coronavirus pandemic not only dominates the current headlines, but will be with us for many years to come - not least because of the social and economic impact. For months, dealing with and overcoming the corona crisis has understandably been at the forefront of issues in politics and the media. However, the critical science-based examination of the question of the origin of the current pandemic is already of great importance today, because only on the basis of this knowledge can adequate precautions be taken to keep the probability of the occurrence of similar pandemics in the future as low as possible.

The study was completed in January 2021 and initially distributed and discussed in scientific circles. The publication is now intended to stimulate a broad discussion, especially with regard to the ethical aspects of so-called “gain-of-function” research, which makes pathogens more infectious, dangerous and deadly for humans. “This can no longer remain a matter for a small group of scientists, but must urgently become the subject of a public debate”, says the author of the study.