Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is not drawing “firm conclusions” on allegations that the novel coronavirus – which has now caused devastation worldwide – came from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
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In a previous interview with Global News, Jeffrey Joy, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s faculty of medicine whose research focuses on virus evolution, said while the idea that this coronavirus escaped the WIV is “conceivable,” it is also “highly implausible in this case.”
He said the genome shows the virus’ origin and spread occurred in nature, which is a common event for several coronaviruses, including ones that don’t become deadly pandemics.
What’s more, Kristian Anderson, who is studying the novel coronavirus at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California told the Associated Press that the odds of the virus having been accidentally released from the lab in Wuhan are “a million to one,” far less likely than an infection in nature.