Image Credit: nature.com
While there is a downpour of accusations on the Wuhan lab being the source of the COVID-19 pandemic, China wants the bio laboratory to be awarded the Nobel prize for its study of the Coronavirus. The demand was made by Zhao Lijian, the spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, during his interaction with the press.
The statement comes days after the Wuhan Lab was nominated for the ‘Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement prize’, the top-most science award of China. The nomination was made by the Chinese Academy of Sciences which cited the lab’s role in identifying the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The Chinese spokesperson went on to refute all allegations of coronavirus originating due to a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Just because the genome sequencing of COVID-19 was first done by scientists at the lab does not mean that Wuhan is the source of Coronavirus, Zhao asserted. “… nor can it be inferred that the Coronavirus was made by Chinese scientists,” he added.
Zhao gave the examples of Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier, who discovered the HIV virus, and Louis Pasteur who discovered microbes and demanded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the team of scientists in Wuhan.
“Origin-tracing is about rigorous scientific research, not far-fetched connections,” he said later in a tweet.
Origin-tracing is about rigorous scientific research, not far-fetched connections. Prof. Luc Montagnier was awarded Nobel Prize for discovery of HIV; Mr. Louis Pasteur was honored for finding of microbes; WIV deserves Nobel Prize, not criticism, for its study of COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/C0mNl7xdpq
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) June 17, 2021
Off late, the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been at the centre of controversy with many scientists not denying the possibility of the virus getting leaked from the lab. Last week, new footage from the Chinese lab revealed that live bats kept in cages, further increasing the suspicions among critics. However, the Chinese government has strongly denied any such possibility.
Following the controversy, US President Joe Biden ordered his intelligence agencies to probe the origin of COVID-19.