Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo confident US created COVID-19?

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Nobel laureate Professor Dr. Tasuku Honjo allegedly said that he is confident that the US created the COVID-19 coronavirus, which is not a natural virus based on his research.

Find out what he said, and if it’s true that the US created the COVID-19 coronavirus!

Fact Check : Tasuku Honjo Confident USA Created COVID-19!

Updated @ 2020-11-28 : Added the Chinese variant of the story, including other updates.

Originally posted @ 2020-04-27

 

Claim : Tasuku Honjo Confident US Created COVID-19!

This is the article that has been going viral on social media since April 2020.

SHOCKING⤵️
令人震惊 日本的生理学和醫學教授本庶佑(Tasuku Honjo)博士証明新冠狀病毒來自美国

Japan’s professor of Physiology & Medicine, Professor Dr Tasuku Honjo, created a sensation in front of the media today by saying that the corona virus is not natural. If it is natural, it wouldn’t have adversely affected entire world like this, as per nature.
日本的生理学和醫學教授本庶佑(Tasuku Honjo)博士 (註一)今天在媒体面前製造了轟動,他说冠狀病毒不是天然的。如果這是自然的,根據性質, 它不會對整個世界造成這樣的負面影響。

Temperature is different in different countries. if it is natural, it would’ve adversely affected only those countries having same temperature as China. Instead, It is spreading in a country like Switzerland, in the same way it is spreading in the desert areas.
不同的國家有不同溫度。如果它是自然的,它只會對那些與中國溫度相同的國家產生不利影響。相反,它正在瑞士這樣的國家傳播,就像它在沙漠地區傳播一樣。

On 25 April 2020, Mir Monaz Haque, the Editor-In-Chief of Asia Today, posted this variant on his Facebook page (now deleted) without comment, lending further credence to the story :

SHOCKING⤵️

Japan’s professor of Physiology or Medicine, Professor Dr Tasuku Honjo, created a sensation in front of the media today by saying that the corona virus is not natural.

 

Tasuku Honjo confident US created COVID-19? Complete Bullshit

This story is such complete bullshit and appears to be a bastardised version of the original hoax which blamed China.

  • Professor Tasuku Honjo issued a statement refuting those claims.
  • Professor Tasuku Honjo does not work on viruses, and has never said that the virus is artificial.
  • Genomic analysis have proven that SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus that is very closely-related to bat coronaviruses.
  • Multiple strains in the USA would prove that it is not the origin of COVID-19 virus.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic started in Wuhan, China… not Maryland, USA

 

Tasuku Honjo Confident USA Created COVID-19 : The Facts

For those who are thinking to themselves, “How do you know it’s fake? You were NOT there!“, here are the reasons why we know for sure…

Fact #1 : Viruses Can Spread In Cold + Warm Climates

While certain viruses spread easier in warmer climates, other viruses spread better in colder climates.

The susceptibility of a virus to humidity and temperature depends on whether it has a lipid bilayer envelope or not.

The COVID-19 coronavirus is enveloped, and is thus more likely to spread better in cold, dry climates. But that doesn’t mean it cannot spread well in warm, humid climates.

Fact #2 : SARS-CoV-2 Is Natural, And Related To Bat Coronaviruses

Genomic analysis have proven that the COVID-19 is natural, for these reasons :

  • an artificial virus would have to be created from existing viruses and their genetic data
  • the SARS-CoV-2 virus has components that have never been seen before
  • it is very similar to existing bat coronaviruses.

Tasuku Honjo 02

Fact #3 : Professor Honjo Does Not Work On Viruses

Tasuku Honjo is a professor of Immunology and Genomic Medicine. He has only worked on immunology, not virology.

His 2018 Nobel Prize, in particular, was for his work on stimulating the immune system to attack tumour cells in cancer.

Fact #4 : Tasuku Honjo Issued A Statement Refuting The Claim

Professor Honjo issued this statement through one of his PhD students :

Prof. Honjo never gave any such statement. Each and every sentence of this post is completely false and has no connection with truth.

Prof. Honjo never worked in Wuhan laboratory. He never called there. He did not work on virus origin and functions and other related issues.

All the contents are just concocted and nothing else.

Tasuku Honjo 01

Fact #5 : Tasuku Honjo Said COVID-19 Originated In China

In an interview with Nikkei Asian Review on 10 April 2020, Professor Tasuku Honjo said that COVID-19 originated in China, but also that it will be the first country to recover from it.

However, he never said that it was manufactured or created by China. Originating in a country, is quite different from creating it.

Fact #6 : Multiple Strains Denote A Later Time Line

Viruses mutate and create new strains over time. A novel virus like COVID-19 would start with a single strain and evolve into multiple strains as it spreads globally and mutate over time.

Hence, the very fact that there are five strains in the United States would actually refute it as the source of SARS-CoV-2 – the COVID-19 coronavirus.

In fact, by analysing the genomic changes of these strains, scientists have pretty much concluded that SARS-CoV-2 did indeed originate in China.

COVID-19 strains by nextstrain

Fact #7 : Earliest COVID-19 Death In US Was In February 2020

The CDC did not wrongly diagnose COVID-19 deaths in the US from July to December 2019.

The earliest death from COVID-19 in the US was revised on 22 April 2020, with the diagnosis of three COVID-19 deaths in Santa Clara, California :

  • a 57 year-old woman on 6 February 2020
  • a 69 year-old man on 17 February 2020
  • a 70 year-old man on 6 March 2020

Fact #8 : Fort Detrick Was Closed Because Of Sterilisation Plant Failure

The CDC temporarily shut down the US Army lab at Fort Detrick on 2 August 2019, after finding “biosafety lapses” there.

Conspiracy theorists pounced on that as “evidence” that COVID-19 may have leaked from Fort Detrick, but a quick check would reveal that :

  • the shutdown was ordered because the lab was no longer able to decontaminate wastewater from its highest security labs.
  • the lab’s steam sterilisation plant was damaged in a flood in May 2018, and they had been using a chemical decontamination method instead.
  • no disease-causing materials were found outside authorised areas
  • if SARS-CoV-2 leaked from Fort Detrick, Maryland would have been the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, not Wuhan.

Fact #9 : SARS-CoV-2 Is Just ONE Of Many Coronaviruses

Conspiracy theorists keep saying that coronavirus deaths were reported long before SARS-CoV-2 appeared in Wuhan.

But the fact of the matter is – SARS-CoV-2 is merely one of many coronaviruses in the world, including SARS and MERS!

The earliest cases of COVID-19 have so far been traced back to Wuhan, China.

 

Why Would Someone Create This Fake Story?

With China’s aggressive foreign policy moves in recent years, it is not uncommon to see fake pro-China, anti-America stories being created and shared.

Many believe it’s part of a concerted attempt to burnish China’s image overseas, and to drown out negative coverage of China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative, and their aggressive moves in the South China Sea..

This COVID-19 was made in the US is also part of the narrative China has been trying to push, after US President Donald Trump blamed them for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whatever the reasons may be, it is our duty as global citizens to stop the proliferation of such fake stories.

Please share this fact check with your friends, so they know the truth!

 

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