What is the exact origin of the coronavirus? Researchers are still trying to clarify an epidemic with unknown causes. There are only hypotheses on the table. The first is that Covid-19 may have been transmitted to humans by an animal. More specifically: from a snake or a bat. In fact, both of the species mentioned are often sold in popular markets in China, where hygiene standards often leave something to be desired. The second option is that the coronavirus escaped from a laboratory following human error. Considering that Wuhan, the epicenter of the contagion, hosts the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention – a center, experts explain, in which we analyze and study viruses of all kinds – many people suspect an involuntary escape of the pathogen from the building. The scientific community is split in two, because in the face of those who speak of the natural origin of the coronavirus, we find other voices, such as that of the two Chinese biologists, Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao, who revive the version of the laboratory.
The Chinese conspiracy theory
Waiting to find out the truth, if we ever know it, conspiracy theories of all kinds are spreading on Chinese social networks. One of these, in particular, places the birth of the coronavirus epidemic in the United States and not in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei. Everything stems from the service of the Japanese TV Asahi Corporation which, as the Chinese newspaper Global Times points out, would have insinuated the suspicion that some of the 14 thousand Americans who died of the flu may have contracted the coronavirus in an unknown way. Furthermore, in October, the Wuhan megacity quelled the Military World Games. “”Perhaps – wrote a user on the social Sina Weibo – the US delegates brought the coronavirus to Wuhan and a virus mutation occurred, making it more lethal and contagious and causing a widespread outbreak this year”. But such theories have begun to circulate with some insistence even outside of China . And even for some time. In the United States, for example, some users believe the hypothesis that the coronavirus may have been created specifically by Beijing to review trade agreements, damaging Washington and the West.Arab and American theories
As La Stampa said, numerous more or less imaginative theories have spread in Arab countries , and not only among common users but also within some media. In particular, Egyptian and Saudi media have re-launched conspiracy hypotheses on the spread of the disease, when in an anti-American key, when in an anti-Israeli one. The basic thesis is that Codiv-19 was created by the United States or Israel to harm China. The fear is that the same treatment reserved for Beijing may soon also be reserved for the states of the region. Just to give an example, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan described the coronavirus as “the virus of wonders”, precisely because it “does not affect the US or Israel” and, like Sars in its time, it appeared in a moment of expansion of the Chinese nation.For the Egyptian portal Vetogate, the United States would manufacture “viruses and other biological weapons ” to “drain billions of dollars from China and sell medicines that will be produced in Israel”. Finally, the declarations of the American senator Tom Cotton, who accused Beijing of creating the virus as a biological weapon, should be recorded. All of these hypotheses have been proven wrong, yet they continue to have considerable success.
