Opinion: Is Coronavirus A Disguised Bio- weapon?

                                                   Image Courtesy - Pixabay

The coronavirus, which has killed over 3,000 Chinese citizens and more than 90,000 confirmed cases  across the globe could be a biological weapon developed by the Chinese defense forces. Although there is no evidence that the plague originated at the laboratory.

The Washington Times reported the link with China’s biological weapons quoting an Israeli biological warfare expert.

According to the report, Radio Free Asia this week rebroadcast a local Wuhan television report from 2015 showing China’s most advanced virus research laboratory known as the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The laboratory is the only declared site in China capable of working with deadly viruses.

Dany Shoham, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who has studied Chinese bio warfare, said the institute is linked to Beijing’s covert biological weapons programme.

"Certain laboratories in the institute have probably been engaged, in terms of research and development, in Chinese (biological weapons), at least collaterally, yet not as a principal facility of the Chinese BW alignment," Shoham told The Washington Times.

Work on biological weapons is conducted as part of a dual civilian-military research and is "definitely covert," he said.

From 1970 to 1991, he was a senior analyst with Israeli military intelligence for biological and chemical warfare in the Middle East and worldwide, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel.

China in the past has denied having any offensive biological weapons. The State Department, in a report last year, said it suspects that China has engaged in covert biological warfare work.

Chinese officials so far have said the origin of coronavirus that has killed many and infected hundreds in central Hubei Province is not known.

Gao Fu, Director of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told state-controlled media that initial signs as of Thursday indicated that the virus originated from wild animals sold at a seafood market in Wuhan.

The Wuhan Institute of Biological Products is a civilian facility but is linked to the Chinese defense establishment. Also, the biosafety lab is located about 20 miles from the Hunan Seaford Market that reports from China say may have been origin point of the virus.

The World Health Organisation said last week it may be 18 months before a vaccine against the coronavirus is publicly available.