The whole world is in a state of shock after the novel coronavirus pandemic impacted millions of people’s lives. So far, over 1.46 million people across the world have passed away linked to coronavirus. As many as 62.8 million contracted the virus infection whereas 40.2 million people recovered from the deadly outbreak.
Today, the deadly outbreak disrupted lives of people, be it health-wise or economically. The battle is not over yet because people are waiting for a vaccine that could defeat the coronavirus.
Recently, Chinese scientists have stunned everyone by claiming that the deadly novel coronavirus originated in India in the summer of 2019. A team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences claimed that the COVID-19 virus likely originated in India in summer 2019 where the virus had spread from animals to humans.
In their paper, the Chinese team uses phylogenetic analysis to trace the origins of Covid-19. Viruses, like all cells, mutate as they reproduce, meaning tiny changes occur in their DNA each time they replicate themselves, according to a DailyMail report.
However, David Robertson, an expert from Glasgow University, has denied this claim, calling the theory proposed by the Chinese researchers ‘very flawed’. He concluded that ‘it adds nothing to our understanding of coronavirus’.
This is not the first time that Chinese authorities have shifted the blame for the COVID-19 outbreak on to other countries without evidence. China has earlier pointed the finger of blame to Italy, the US and Europe — largely without evidence.
The scientists argue their method of investigation rules out the virus found in Wuhan as the ‘original’ virus, and instead points to eight other countries: Bangladesh, the USA, Greece, Australia, India, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia or Serbia.
Researchers go on to argue that because India and Bangladesh both recorded samples with low mutations and are geographic neighbours, it is likely that the first transmission occurred there.
Their unproven theory goes on to say: “The water shortage made wild animals such as monkeys engage in the deadly fight over water among each other and would have surely increased the chance of human-wild animal interactions. We speculated that the [animal to human] transmission of SARS-CoV-2 might be associated with this unusual heat wave.
“India’s poor healthcare system and young population allowed the virus to spread undetected for several months.”
China is making a false claim that India is the origin of coronavirus. However, there is no hiding from the fact that the dangerous virus has originated in a market in Wuhan, China in December 2019, where humans have direct contact with live animals and animal flesh. So far, many dangerous viruses have originated in animals such as the new coronavirus, SARS, bird flu, and more.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said China and the World Health Organization (WHO) are discussing a trip for experts to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and the details of the trip to China will be released in a timely manner.
On Monday, the WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said that they had received reassurances from Beijing that international experts would soon be able to travel to China to help probe the animal origins of COVID-19.
In May, the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the Geneva-based WHO, passed a unanimous resolution to probe the origin of the virus.
China also backed the resolution. Last month, many countries called on the WHO to send the team and share more details about the mission.
