The first person in the world to contract the coronavirus worked in the laboratory of the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, where the COVID-19 outbreak was recorded. The corresponding version was shared by Fox News, citing "numerous sources familiar with the details of the early actions of the Chinese government and having seen the relevant documents."
The American TV channel revealed the theory of the origin of the virus, according to which SARS-CoV-2 was originally transmitted from a bat to a laboratory employee, who later spread the infection among the city's population.
At the same time, a number of the channel's interlocutors argue that the coronavirus was created in the laboratory not as a biological weapon, but to demonstrate outstanding results in virus research by Chinese scientists. Also, Beijing got the opportunity to prove that its capabilities exceed the American ones in detecting viruses and fighting them.
In addition, sources continue to insist that China has carried out "the most expensive evidence-hiding operation in history." So, they point out that bats have never been sold in the seafood market in Wuhan - and information about the market as a hotbed of the epidemic was supposedly to divert suspicion from the laboratory.
Earlier, a similar version was put forward by the British Daily Mail. According to the publication, the coronavirus pandemic could be caused by a leak from a Chinese laboratory. At the same time, the main version of the origin with infection from an animal is not excluded. China has denied all rumors that the coronavirus was developed in a laboratory.
An outbreak of COVID-19 caused by a novel coronavirus was first recorded in December 2019 in Wuhan. On March 11, the World Health Organization announced that the situation could be characterized as a pandemic.