Topline
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro suggested the coronavirus may have been purposely developed in a lab as a new form of warfare, a conspiracy theory that has been discredited by international health organizations and is the latest misinformation pushed by the right wing leader.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro gives a speech at Planalto Palace Wednesday in Brasilia.
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Key Facts
“It’s a new virus. Nobody knows whether it was born in a laboratory or because a human ate some animal they shouldn’t have,” Bolsonaro said Wednesday, according to French press agency AFP.
The World Health Organization said last month that the lab leak theory was “extremely unlikely,” and that the virus was most likely transmitted to humans by bats, though the officials noted Chinese authorities had been less than transparent during the investigation.
“The military knows all about chemical, biological and radiological warfare,” Bolsonaro said. “Could we be fighting a new war? I wonder. Which country’s GDP has grown the most?”
His comments were widely interpreted as a jab at China, which is seeing its economy bounce back after largely controlling its coronavirus outbreak.
Bolsonaro is no stranger to making controversial comments about the coronavirus pandemic, and an ongoing Senate inquiry is investigating his administration’s pandemic response.
The president has downplayed the severity of the virus and called it “a little flu,” attacked social distancing measures as more dangerous than the pandemic itself and has pushed hydroxychloroquine and other drugs as coronavirus treatments, despite a lack of research to show they are safe and effective.
Key Background
Bolsonaro is not the first world leader to suggest a Chinese lab may be behind the coronavirus pandemic. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, a Bolsonaro ally, floated similar theories early on during the pandemic. In April, Trump said, without providing evidence, he had a “high degree of confidence” the virus came from a lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city believed to be where the first outbreak occurred.
Further Reading
A Timeline Of The COVID-19 Wuhan Lab Origin Theory (Forbes)
WHO Reportedly Finds Animals Are Likely Source Of Covid-19–Lab Leak Theory Is ‘Extremely Unlikely’ (Forbes)
Brazil’s Bolsonaro links pandemic to ‘germ warfare’ (AFP)
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