14.5.20

‘Artificial virus, not natural’, says Nitin Gadkari

The coronavirus, which originated from China’s Wuhan and has claimed over 2.5 million lives worldwide, is not a “natural virus” and it was created from a laboratory, said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday.

“...We need to understand the art of living with corona. That art of living is very important as it is not a natural virus. It is an artificial virus and many countries across the world are researching for a vaccine,” Gadkari said in an interview to NDTV.

This is the first time that the Indian government has made a comment on the origin of the deadly contagion. This admission by a senior cabinet minister is significant as most countries have blamed a lab in Wuhan for the creation of the virus.

“The second thing is detection methodology. We need some good methodology. Immediately, we can identify (the virus). This is unexpected because this a virus from laboratory, this is not a natural virus,” the union minister added.

Gadkari’s statement comes at a time when countries across the world, including the US, have raised suspicions that the virus which has brought the world to a grinding halt, was created in labs in Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province.

US President Donald Trump, on multiple occasions, has blamed China for allowing the virus to spread around the world. He has also referred to it as ‘Chinese virus’. A war of words also emerged between Trump and Chinese diplomats of the world over blaming each other for the origin of the virus.


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