A rumor saying that Russian scientists found the new coronavirus was produced by humans was refuted by Russia itself on Friday.
The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (MHRF) told Sputnik, a Russian government-owned news agency, on Friday that they never admitted the new coronavirus is man-made.
The fabricated news purporting that the MHRF asserted the coronavirus is man-made recently went viral on Chinese social media, taking the form of a WeChat's group chat record.
The document mentioned that the novel coronavirus had been verified by Russian scientists as an artificially synthesized virus, with relevant documents being published on the official website of the MHRF.
Screenshot circulated on social media
After checking the official website of the MHRF, a CGTN reporter found no information related to the rumor. The only document found was a temporary prevention, diagnosis and treatment guideline against the new coronavirus, published by MHRF on February 3.
The guideline in Russian said the novel coronavirus is suspected to be a recombination of the a coronavirus in bats and other unknown origins, adding its genetic sequence is at least 70 percent similar to that of the SARS coronavirus.
According to Sputnik, the rumormonger probably mistook "genetic recombination" for the synthetic process as he said in the screenshot that he can barely read Russian.
Screenshot from Sputnik
The Chinese embassy in Russia has sought confirmation from experts and also made an explanation that recombination is a process by which pieces of nuclear acid materials are broken and recombined to produce new combinations of genes. It is one of the basic natural processes such as replication and transcription, and has nothing to do with human involvement.
Meanwhile, 27 international public health experts jointly issued a statement on the website of renowned medical journal The Lancet on Wednesday saying: "We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin."
Screenshot from The Lancet
The statement, published on Wednesday in both English and Chinese, also alerted that "the rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumors and misinformation around its origins."
The scientists supported their claim with research findings that "overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife."