Luc Montagnier, the virologist who discovered the HIV virus and earned a nobel prize for it, has an idea different from the main stream on how the new coronavirus strain came into being.
Montagnier sequenced the RNA of the virus and claims to have founds parts of the HIV genome in it. He is sure about that such a sharing of genomes between viruses in bodies is not possible, so let's say a corona virus infected a human who suffered from AIDS and therefore got parts of this genome into its own. Since he is so sure about that this happened not naturally he comes to the conclusion that this virus strain must be the result of scientific research on an anti AIDS vaccine.
Since a high security virus laboratory is located in Wuhan he thinks it is quite possible that a security breach happened, and this virus strain came into nature that way we are all suffering now.
It is well known that in 2011 US and Chinese researchers visited a big bat population in South China in order to collect excrement and spit samples, in which they found until then 27 unknown virus types. They already found a SARS similar virus which uses its spike to attach at the ACE2 receptors of the human mouth and published these results 2013 in Nature Medicine (
Isolation and characterization of a bat SARS-like coronavirus that uses the ACE2 receptor).
Then they made research with these samples, and the strains were used to infect bat, mice, human cells to observe how this stuff is changing if changing its host. The result of this research was published 2015 in an article named "A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence" (
A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence). This was the end of the joint research between the USA and PRC.
This article documents that indeed those viruses have been artificially genetically altered. A view days after it was released a big debate was going on, this is what Nature Medicine had to tell the world about it (
Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research):
An experiment that created a hybrid version of a bat coronavirus — one related to the virus that causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) — has triggered renewed debate over whether engineering lab variants of viruses with possible pandemic potential is worth the risks.
In an article published in Nature Medicine1 on 9 November, scientists investigated a virus called SHC014, which is found in horseshoe bats in China. The researchers created a chimaeric virus, made up of a surface protein of SHC014 and the backbone of a SARS virus that had been adapted to grow in mice and to mimic human disease. The chimaera infected human airway cells — proving that the surface protein of SHC014 has the necessary structure to bind to a key receptor on the cells and to infect them. It also caused disease in mice, but did not kill them.
Although almost all coronaviruses isolated from bats have not been able to bind to the key human receptor, SHC014 is not the first that can do so. In 2013, researchers reported this ability for the first time in a different coronavirus isolated from the same bat population
The findings reinforce suspicions that bat coronaviruses capable of directly infecting humans (rather than first needing to evolve in an intermediate animal host) may be more common than previously thought, the researchers say.
But other virologists question whether the information gleaned from the experiment justifies the potential risk. Although the extent of any risk is difficult to assess, Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, points out that the researchers have created a novel virus that “grows remarkably well” in human cells. “If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,” he says.
Anyway, Nature Medicine has a big fat warning above the article that in their opinion there's no evidence that the coronavirus COVID19 was genetically engineered.
Also in 2008 Chinese scientists were successfully working on genetically modifying a bat coronavirus in such a way that it can bind itself on ACE2 receptors, which was published in this paper:
Difference in Receptor Usage between Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Coronavirus and SARS-Like Coronavirus of Bat Origin
This study indeed worked with HIV genome in order to genetically modify the virus; it was not direclty injected into the genome, but could have happened due to unwanted exchanges.
There has also been an Indian study which came to similar conclusions that the new type of coronavirus is the result of bioengineering, but was withdrawn by its authors. Official explanation: statistical errors.
Anyway, the reputation of Montagnier at the moment is not the best compared to former times because he supports homeopathy, and his opinion is not well received at all. What is fact though is that in Wuhan the high security laboratory worked in a joint effort research program with the USA on corona viruses from bats, and genetically modified them - and that's it.
For example the claim "the new strain of corona virus contains HIV parts" by Montagnier is being disputed here, but also look into the comments for valuable context as well:
No, SARS-CoV-2 does not contain HIV genetic code!
