MOSCOW, December 3. /TASS/. Scientists lack the information on how to develop a virus with specific properties, so there was no plot to use the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus as a weapon, virologist Anatoly Altshtein, a senior researcher at the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, told TASS.

"To create such a virus with intentionally specific properties is impossible because science simply does not have the information on what needs to be done, or what must be changed in a virus so it will become like this one. Science cannot do this," the researcher said. "I think that there was no special plan to create a bioweapon that would be targeting anyone," Altshtein added, replying to a question about the potential plot to develop a biological weapon.

That said, he did not rule out the possibility of the coronavirus escaping from the lab. "[At the lab,] they were collecting coronavirus strains from all over the world. When they harvested these strains, they were unlikely to know that this strain had these properties. It needed an opportunity to act. Then it becomes clear, most likely, if it was a leak, then it was from the collections they had there. Of course, with improper handling, the virus could have escaped," the researcher concluded.

Earlier, a group from the House of Representatives of the US Congress published a report with their version of the spread of COVID-19, according to which the coronavirus most likely emerged because of a laboratory incident in Wuhan, China. Allegedly, gain-of-function experiments altering the coronavirus’ properties were carried out there. The report insists that the virus has biological features not found in nature.