How Do We Know If a Virus Is Bioengineered?

Almost as soon as the coronavirus appeared in the news, so too did speculation that it was purposefully engineered, the result of experimentation at one of several Wuhan laboratories. The idea that the virus, whether natural or engineered, came from a scientific facility was pushed by some politicians. The White House <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/politics/trump-administration-intelligence-coronavirus-china.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">reportedly</a> pressured spy agencies to look into lab links. Most scientists agree, based on the virus’s genetics, that it probably hopped <a href="https://coronavirus.medium.com/it-probably-came-from-bats-30616182a190" rel="noopener">from animals </a>to humans. On April 30, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence <a href="https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/item/2112-intelligence-community-statement-on-origins-of-covid-19" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">declared</a>, on behalf of the <a href="https://www.dni.gov/index.php/what-we-do/members-of-the-ic#:~:text=Eight%20Department%20of%20Defense%20elements,Marine%20Corps%2C%20and%20Air%20Force." rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">17 different organizations</a> that make up the U.S. intelligence community, that “the Covid-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified.” The organizations decided to continue investigating two alternatives: the more likely explanation that the virus jumped from an animal to a human, and the more remote possibility that it was a natural virus released in a <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/intelligence-officials-weigh-possibility-coronavirus-escaped-from-a-chinese-lab-194958353.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">lab accident, which</a> still hasn’t been ruled out. <a href="https://futurehuman.medium.com/how-do-we-know-if-a-virus-is-bioengineered-541ff6f8a48f">Learn More</a>