DISINFO: USAID is a CIA-affiliated terror group that created the coronavirus
SUMMARY
With the accusation against China, all that is needed is for China to be tied, in this case for supplying a virus, to a dangerous terror group, to a global pandemic. The terror group, as we discovered was the USAID, a CIA affiliate that used the Wuhan virus to create something frightening at the University of North Carolina, not in Wuhan.
RESPONSE
This is a conspiracy theory, presented with no evidence to support the claim that the coronavirus was created in the USA. This is part of the Kremlin's ongoing coronavirus disinformation campaign and is based on recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about biological weapons. The World Health Organisation has concluded that the virus first appeared in the Chinese province of Hubei. The novel coronavirus "2019-nCoV” comes from a family of viruses originating in animals that includes others such as SARS and MERS. There is no evidence to suggest it was developed artificially in a laboratory as a weapon of mass destruction. A group of public health scientists have condemned rumours and conspiracy theories about the origin of coronavirus outbreak: "We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin." The authors of The Lancet statement note that scientists from several countries who have studied 2019-nCoV “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, just like many other viruses that have recently emerged in humans." There are numerous similar disinformation cases claiming that the coronavirus was created in a laboratory, that the coronavirus an Anglo-Saxon biological warning originating in US labs, that it is a US provocation against China, a tool to weaken the Chinese economy, and an attempt by the Anglo-Saxons to control China.