NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assessed the possibility of the artificial origin of the coronavirus. His words are quoted in the Berliner Zeitung.
He noted that scientists from different countries agree on the origin of the infection: most likely, the virus was not developed in a laboratory. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic still revealed the dangers that exist in connection with the possibility of developing biological weapons.
“We must be ready to use it, because we know that it still exists and that there is a risk of its use by both states and terrorists,” Stoltenberg said.
In the spring, the American television channel Fox News, citing several sources, reported that the first patient infected with a new type of coronavirus was an employee of the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian responded by saying that the version about the development of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in a laboratory in Wuhan has no scientific basis. The US urged China to disclose full details of the first infection with the virus.
An outbreak of COVID-19 pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus was first recorded in December 2019 in Wuhan. On March 11, WHO announced that the situation could be characterized as a pandemic. According to the latest data, more than a million people are infected in the world.
