The niggling question that just won’t go away

Could Covid-19 have been man-made and escaped from a lab in Wuhan? The overwhelming majority of serious scientists are pouring scorn on the notion. But the argument is still very much alive. It’s a deadly virus that began in a live food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Everyone knows the story by now. But did you know that 280 metres from the market is a laboratory where scientists store and research infectious diseases? According to one conspiracy theory, this is where it all started. Few have taken this idea seriously. But now a controversial Nobel Prize-winning French virologist, Luc Montagnier, has emerged on French TV to say the chemical construction of the virus is “highly suspect”. He believes it was made in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and accidentally released into the community. His comments came as President Trump appeared to sign-up to the theory, telling journalists that “it seems to make sense”. He warned China that there would be consequences if they were “knowingly responsible” for the outbreak. And although Trump has a history of backing conspiracy theories, there is widespread support in Western countries for holding China to account. But is there any evidence to support the idea? An image of a broken seal on a lab fridge door has attracted huge attention online. And two years ago, the US warned about “inadequate” safety measures in China’s laboratories. Another clue is the identity of patient zero, and whether they were connected with the Wuhan research centres. But this speculation doesn’t interest Montagnier. This new virus, he argues, contains genetic material from HIV that “could not have arisen naturally”. In other words, it was genetically modified by scientists designing a treatment for AIDS. Other experts are not convinced. Montagnier is a distrusted figure in the scientific community, whose research into “the memory of water” has been widely criticised and ridiculed. Another French virologist, Étienne Simon Lorière, says his claims do not make sense and this genetic material is found in similar viruses. And the World Health Organisation insists there is no evidence to support the theory. But for many, the strongest evidence that it might be true is that the Institute of Virology and the Chinese government have both denied it. Do they protest too much? So, was Covid-19 man-made? Made in China? Yes. It’s looking increasingly likely, say some. When the virus spread to the rest of the world, we learned that it was more infectious and more deadly than the original reports from Wuhan. Doctors were silenced and reporters disappeared – what was China trying to hide? Now, we are beginning to gather evidence and follow the trail that leads to a catastrophic accident in a laboratory. No. This is just another crazy conspiracy theory, say others. Fear and a Communist Party devoted to secrecy are the perfect conditions for this kind of wild speculation. The majority of experts have consistently argued that the virus is natural. Politicians promoting this theory are only trying to deflect blame away for themselves and find a scapegoat in China. KeywordsNobel prize - One of a set of prizes, laid out in the will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, given each year to people who "have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".