MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. There is no proof of the artificial origin of coronavirus at this moment, head of the branch of the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing in Yekaterinburg Alexander Semenov said on Friday.
"So far, there is not a single piece of convincing proof of the artificial origin of this virus. Again, if one studies the history of infectious diseases and other related coronaviruses, everything indicates that there is a natural source that crossed into the human population. Bats were the initial reservoir," he said live on air within the framework of an awareness campaign on vaccines organized by the Znanie (Knowledge) Society and the national anti-coronavirus campaign.
The scientist noted that the path of the virus infiltrating the human population has not yet been detected. "Was it the result of some animal eating a bat from which already humans got infected - or directly, because the Chinese also consume bat meat, or was it the result of some laboratory accident," he explained. "Yet initially the virus is absolutely natural, we do not detect in it any extraordinary things that we haven’t seen in other coronaviruses," he added.
The researcher emphasized that the statements on the artificial origin of the virus are political. "One has to clearly separate political games from scientific facts. Unfortunately, there is too much politics around this pandemic and too many groups pursue their interests," he said.
The Vector representative also reported that the coronavirus mutations are being monitored daily worldwide. "The virus is being abundantly sequenced, there is daily monitoring of new mutations, its drug resistance is being checked daily - this is the routine work that all research centers are occupied with worldwide," he said.