The former director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, is of the opinion that COVID-19 escaped from a lab in China and did not come from bats.

The Trump appointee is taking issue with the theory that the virus transferred from animals to humans and, in his opinion, that couldn’t have happened so quickly anyway.

“I’m of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory …escaped. Other people don’t believe that, that’s fine. Science will eventually figure it out,” said Redfield.

“It’s not unusual for respiratory pathogens that are being worked on in laboratories to infect the laboratory worker. That’s not implying any intentionality. It’s my opinion, right? But I am a virologist. I have spent my life in virology.”

Since COVID-19 was discovered in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, it has spread across the world, infecting 126 million people and leading to 2.8 million deaths.

It is the deadliest pandemic to stalk the earth in over 100 years and modern science is still unable to defeat it.

TRANSMITTED THROUGH COUGHS, SNEEZES, EXHALES

The virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or exhales. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air and quickly fall on floors or surfaces.

You can be infected by breathing in the virus if you are within close proximity of someone who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface and then your eyes, nose or mouth.

For some time now, there has been a view that COVID-19 is man-made and may be part of a biological weaponry programme. There is also a theory that it is designed to reduce the world’s population as 10 billion people will place an inordinate strain on the planet’s natural resources.

Redfield declared: “I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human and at that moment in time the virus came to the human because [it is] one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to-human transmission.”

He added: “Normally when a pathogen goes from a zoonot to human, it takes a while for it to figure out to become more and more efficient.”

COVID-19 took hold very quickly and, after a year, shows little sign of meaningfully abating. 

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